Everyone who loves novels knows that hundreds of America's best authors inhabit New York City's neighborhoods. And those who love books also know how many of those writers set their novels in these energetic, artistic stomping grounds otherwise known as NYC.
Honestly, there's no quicker way for two people to bond than over the same books. But when they both love the same books and the city in which those books were set? Well then, fuhgeddaboudit!
bookvidclub When there are book stores literally every where 👌 #newyork #city #citylife #newyorkcity #nyc #book #books #booksnyc #instabook #bookstagram #reading #read #life #bookwor
Because let's face it: maneuvering the same city as our favorite characters is every book worm's dream. (Which is why so many of us live here, right?)
So, what are the best books in New York City, by neighborhood?
Luckily, the New York Public Library took the time to organize this city's most famous books by 'hood. Read below to find out where the best books are set in New York City (or you can check out this awesome map here). Then cross the ones you've read off your summer reading list.
Seriously, isn't it a good thing we live in a city with so many different, amazing bookstores?
(P.S., if you're looking for the best spots in this city to knock a few drinks back while you're turning some pages, check this out.)
Manhattan
The Financial District:
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos
The World Trade Center
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Chinatown
Shoplifting from American Apparel by Tao Lin
Chinatown Beat by Henry Chang
The Bowery
Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell
Five Points
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsey Faye
Lower East Side
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
Lush Life by Richard Prince
SoHo
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Alphabet City
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
Greenwich Village
Great Jones Street by Don Delillo
Washington Square by Henry James
Flatiron District
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
Gramcery
Time and Again by Jack Finney
Chelsea
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
Midtown
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Times Square
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Fifth Avenue
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Central Park
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Upper East Side
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Upper West Side
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
Open City by Teju Cole
Morningside Heights
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
Harlem
Push by Sapphire
Jazz by Toni Morrison
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Brooklyn
Greenpoint
The Astral by Kate Christensen
Williamsburg
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller
The Chosen by Chaim Potock
Bedford-Stuyvesant
Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall
Downtown Brooklyn
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Brooklyn Heights
10:04 by Ben Lerner
Boerum Hill
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
Park Slope
The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
Snow in August by Pete Hamill
Flatbush/Ditmas Park
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Sunset Park/Bay Ridge
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
Brighton Beach
The Museum of Ordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
Queens
Astoria
The Ask by Sam Lipsyte
Sunnyside
Dissident Gardens by Jonathan Lethem
Flushing
Native Speaker by Chang Rae Lee
Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish
Woodside
We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas
Rockaway Beach
Rockaway by Tara Ison
Bronx
South Bronx
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCan
University Heights
Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow
West Bronx/Fordham
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Staten Island
Port Richmond
Small Mercies by Eddie Joyce
The Swing Voter of Staten Island by Arthur Neresian
Check out 7 Wonderful Ways You Can Take Your Mind Off a Really Bad Day in NYC.
[via New York Public Library]