View of the Empire State Building (left) from the enormous picture window of the Skymermaid's luxurious penthouse apartment on 14th Street, just off Union Square.
For a bibliophile this neighborhood around Union Station is paradisiacal. Within a five minute walk are a four-story Barnes and Noble Superstore, the Strand Used Book Store, which claims to be the largest used book store in the world, and the East-West Book Store, with a staggering assortment of books on Buddhism, Islam, and various esoteric subjects. The Skymermaid was kind enough to show me all of these places.