ŷ������

Get Your Nerd On: Desire, Passion And The Scientific Bookstore

by Adam Frank
January 16, 201310:28 AM

It never seemed to be in the same place twice. After stumbling on to it by accident during my undergrad days, I seemed to lose its location time and time again. But it was easy to lose, just a door on 19th Street (or was it 17th?) between 5th and 6th Avenue. The door led to a cramped hallway and locked stairwells. Then came an ancient, cranky elevator that took you up to the 3rd floor (or was it the 4th?) and spilled out onto an empty, poorly lit hallway. It always felt creepy, like I was there for a drug deal. But in a way that is exactly why I, or anyone else, was there.

We all came get our fix. We came to get some science books. And not just any kind of science book, mind you. We wanted the hardcore stuff and for that you needed a technical bookstore. Technical bookstores are the domain of the ultra-geek. They are places of such rapturous beauty, such all-encompassing delight that, today, I must to sing a pean to their glory.

rest:

Kenny wrote: "[...]Together we spent an hour in the store drooling over all the titles we wanted. When we finally left the store it was with a bag full of books and the anticipation of hours of delight ahead of us."

I know that (great!) sensation. I do the same in ADI, a scientific bookstore in Madrid (Spain).