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Good Places to Read a Book in NYC

New York is one of the world's busiest cities. Within the hustle and bustle, however, you can find a few places where reading will be a pleasant way to pass the time. You'll find New York locations that provide not only an opportunity to enjoy a good book, but to also take in the sights and sounds that are part of New York's unique ambiance and history.

A Greenwich Village Coffee House
- Long before Starbucks, there were New York's Greenwich Village coffee houses. Caffe Reggio, located at 119 MacDougal Street, is, perhaps, the areas most famous and longstanding. Billed as the birthplace of the "Original Cappuccino," Caffe Reggio has been in business for almost a century. It's a classic Greenwich Village haunt that will allow you to enjoy your book and a famous cappuccino. Snag a table outdoors and you can read while you also soak up the neighborhood's atmosphere, including Washington Square, setting for the novel of the same name by Henry James. If you'd prefer to wander, there are other coffee houses you can explore as well that will provide a pleasant place to read.
The New York Public Library
- The New York Public Library is located at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street and offers public reading space in the third floor Rose Main Reading Room. With long-term renovations finally completed in 1998, the room's early 20th century glory is now completely restored. The space is cavernous, covering nearly the length of two city blocks. This is "old school" reading, with rows of tables and chairs rather than comfy arm chairs. But if you choose to read here, you'll be among the literary elite who have frequented this room -- Norman Mailer, E.L. Doctorow, Elizabeth Bishop and Isaac Bashevis Singer, to name a few. Don't feel guilty if, as you're enjoying your book, your mind wanders to the architectural details of the room, such as the soaring ceilings -- 52 feet tall -- with their eye-catching murals.
Central Park
- Not only can you enjoy the outdoor space when you choose Central Park as the perfect place to crack open a book, you can also buddy up to some literary icons. If you settle in by The Pond off Central Park South between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, you'll be frequenting a location described as Holden Caulfield's favorite thinking spot by J.D. Salinger in "The Catcher in the Rye." Sit by the Burnett Fountain -- 104th Street and Fifth Avenue -- named for Frances Burnett, writer of "The Secret Garden." Or take your copy of a Shakespeare play to the Shakespeare Garden at Park Avenue between 79th and 80th. You can also sit next to statues of Lewis Carroll and "Alice in Wonderland," located at Park Avenue and 74th Street.
The Subway
- Manhattan might be the main island borough of New York, but many New Yorkers live in the outer boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island and commute daily by subway (or bus or ferry) to work. For these New Yorkers, reading to pass the time of a long commute is a tried-and-true tradition. For your subway reading jaunt, choose fiction or nonfiction -- anything from the "Twilight" series to Michael Pollen's "The Omnivore's Dilemma." Access the subway system via the main hubs located at 42nd Street and Broadway on the West Side or 42nd and Park on the East.

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