Favorite books
In no particular order
No particular order, because I find more interesting things when I don't know quite where I'm going.
Up in the Old Hotel, by Joseph Mitchell. Four books in one volume. It includes McSorely’s Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Gould's Secret. The San Francisco Examiner calls it “A poetry of the actual, a song of the streets that casts a wide net and fearlessly embraces everything human…This is reporting transformed into literature, news that stays news….His work is so rich and generous and funny that it ought to stay in print forever.” A very few books make me want to visit New York City; this is one of them.