At the Strand Bookstore

Gary, one of our travelers, pursuing books at the Strand

We made our annual pilgrimage to the Strand  Bookstore in Greenwich Village on Monday, May 11.
I've made several trips to the store in the past with SIUE students, and they've always found the space enjoyable and deeply thought-provoking. Since they have relatively little access to bookstores of any comparable size and prominence, the experience of visiting the Strand is also fairly unique.

So much reading takes places on computer screens and digital devices these days; thus, the experience of moving through shelves and stakes of books seems to provide students with a kind of thrilling feeling, as if they were transported to some other alternate place. The guys on this year's trip were constantly discussing their intellectual experiences and development, and moving around a bookstore seemed to complement those conversations.

Greg, one of our travelers, checking out the 'Black Studies' section at the Strand

Here's a reflection from one of the travelers:

The Strand bookstore has the most diverse set of books that I've ever seen. Once I found an aisle that I liked in the nonfiction section, I just spent 20 minutes browsing through novels without even knowing it. I also found a fair amount of interesting books in my major field of study, Chemistry. --Isaiah B.

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