André Kertész: On Reading

Via Classical Bookworm, via Book Patrol: André Kertész‘s On Reading, a photo essay depicting readers.

The man in this picture is browsing in front of a used bookstore on 4th Avenue, the fabled “Book Row” of New York. From Amazon:

Indeed, one of the greatest satisfactions Book Row offered was the joy of the chase. You’d decide you wanted such and such a title, and then spend weeks, or months, or years, searching for it. Every store you entered held out the hope that at last it would be there, and when it wasn’t your disappointment was tempered by the knowledge that right next door, or maybe a couple of storefronts away, was yet another store holding out the same hope, and then another, and then another.

Reading through the reviews, it is fascinating to observe the various reactions book lovers and book browsers exhibit towards the internet and the era of online book trading.