Thumbnail image for IMG_0219.JPGBryant Park. Frenchified oasis of a park (except that, unlike parks in Paris, here you can sit on the grass). Little green chairs that no one steals; a fountain; a carousel; the black-and-gold American Radiator Building (now the Bryant Park Hotel) gleaming through the trees.

And tonight, after a brilliant three hours of “Mary Stuart,” as I walked through the park from the from the clotted tourist hell of Times Square to the subway, I saw…books. On carts. Just right out there for people to read. The Reading Room en pleine air.

Tables and chairs reserved for readers – even smal
l readers:

IMG_0220.JPGCarts with magazines and newspapers – and “moderator” who is there apparently to recommend books and cover things up if it rains.

Free.

Free books and the smell of hyacinth in the evening air.

Maybe there’s hope.