(Part 3) Top products from r/nyc

You're very welcome! I learned most of what I know about New York City history by reading as much as I could about it. It started off as an interest, became a passion, and over the past few years I've been able to turn my love of city history into a career.

There are definitely some fabulous blogs and websites about NYC that are a good place to start if you're interested in learning more, such as Forgotten New York, Daytonian in Manhattan, Untapped Cities, Ephemeral New York, and The Bowery Boys, to name a few. The New-York Historical Society, The Museum of the City of New York, The Brooklyn Historical Society, and The New York Public Library are all great places to visit, and their respective blogs (here, here, here and here) have a ton of valuable information. Other organizations and groups have websites and social media feeds that are worth checking out. Here is a list with some amazing websites and resources to check out.

In terms of books, I recommend starting with Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. It is comprehensive, informative, and incredibly well written. I have read it numerous times over the years, and I reference it constantly. Empire City: New York Through the Centuries by Kenneth T. Jackson and David S. Dunbar is also a good introductory book to get yourself up to speed. I have compiled a list of books for /r/nychistory, which you can view here, and it has plenty of other good choices to pick and includes different categories.

In the event that you enjoy what I do and want to learn more, feel free to check out my Twitter page (you don't need an account to view it), where I have shared over 7,000 unique historical images and photos from the city's history. I also have an Instagram account, where I am able to provide more in-depth stories about the events, buildings, views, and people that have helped make New York City the place that it is today.

The last excellent work of fiction I read was City of Dreams by Beverly Swerling. The book that I feel best captures the feeling of New York City, however, is Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin.

I mostly read nonfiction books about New York City history, and I'll share a few of my favorites with you. The definitive tome, of course, is Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Mike Wallace and Edwin Burrows. Another favorite of mine, as I love the history of New Amsterdam, is Island at the Center of the World:The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto. One of the most fascinating subjects I have been learning about is Native American history at the period of first European contact, and I really recommend checking out Adriaen Van Der Donck's A Description of New Netherland (The Iroquoians and their World), which many scholars agree is just as much of a significant work as William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, and would be the definitive guide to the new world if it had been written in English. Evan Pritchard's Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquian People of New York also offers an incredible look at native culture.

If you are interested in the subway system, check out Stan Fischler's fantastic Uptown, Downtown. One of the most underrated books I have picked up recently explores the construction of the amazing Grand Central Terminal, and I learned an incredible amount from it: Grand Central's Engineer: William J. Wilgus and the Planning of Modern Manhattan. If you are interested in urban planning, I would also suggest The Measure of Manhattan: The Tumultuous Career and Surprising Legacy of John Randel Jr., Cartographer, Surveyor, Inventor.

At this point I've read a ton of nonfiction books about the city, so if you have any questions or want any other recommendations, feel free to ask!

Here's a little bit about the book and a link for the lazy:
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything

Colonel Chris Hadfield has spent decades training as an astronaut and has logged nearly 4000 hours in space. During this time he has broken into a Space Station with a Swiss army knife, disposed of a live snake while piloting a plane, and been temporarily blinded while clinging to the exterior of an orbiting spacecraft. The secret to Col. Hadfield's success-and survival-is an unconventional philosophy he learned at NASA: prepare for the worst-and enjoy every moment of it.

In An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Col. Hadfield takes readers deep into his years of training and space exploration to show how to make the impossible possible. Through eye-opening, entertaining stories filled with the adrenaline of launch, the mesmerizing wonder of spacewalks, and the measured, calm responses mandated by crises, he explains how conventional wisdom can get in the way of achievement-and happiness. His own extraordinary education in space has taught him some counterintuitive lessons: don't visualize success, do care what others think, and always sweat the small stuff.

You might never be able to build a robot, pilot a spacecraft, make a music video or perform basic surgery in zero gravity like Col. Hadfield. But his vivid and refreshing insights will teach you how to think like an astronaut, and will change, completely, the way you view life on Earth-especially your own.

This was awesome, thanks. I work just a few blocks from 60 Hudson and 32 6th (My company gets their internet from Rainbow Broadband, streamed from the antenna on the top of 32 6th) and have always wanted to see what the data centers and switch infrastructure inside actually looks like. But I'm not holding my breath.

If anyone else is interested in this stuff, I recommend reading Tubes by Andrew Blum. He worked for years to get exclusive looks inside the workings of these exchanges, and then tells you all about it. According to his book, the main entrance for network cables into 60 Hudson is a hole a few feet wide in the basement that every tenant has to pay for space in, making it the most expensive tiny sliver of real estate in Manhattan.

Subwayland: Adventures in the World Beneath New York by Randy Kennedy (NY times author who used to have a column about the subway called 'Tunnel Vision')

This isn't about the whole city itself but about the subway, it's place in New York City's history and the many stories within. It's a little dated but most of the stuff is still applicable. Short book and a great read.

The US has gotten very interested in Yakuza activity in the US in recent years. See also Tokyo Vice which goes into how the FBI fast tracked a liver transplant for a Japanese mob boss in exchange for help on a bust in the US.

The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City
http://amzn.com/0307272745

Four Foot Eleven, a mini-doc about Chris "The Angry Bagel Guy" Morgan's rise to fame hit Amazon yesterday. It covers the lead up to the fight and the aftermath. A percentage of proceeds go directly to help Chris. It's free for Prime and a buck to rent for everyone else. https://www.amazon.com/Four-Foot-Eleven-Chris-Morgan/dp/B081G6Q792/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=%22Daniel+La+Barbera%22&qid=1573868630&s=instant-video&sr=1-1

I got you: The New York Nobody Knows. As a sociologist myself, I actually thought the parts that read more like a memoir (walking with his dad) were the most compelling.

This guy happened to be doing it around a similar time, I think.

Nothing new is necessary.

Countdown by Alan Weisman, describes many nations that have lowered birth rates without coercion to increases in joy and abundance.

Usually it results from making contraception widely available, education, and concerted PR.

If you remember reading "The Little Red Lighthouse" when you were a kid, this is what it's about: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Lighthouse-Great-Gray-Bridge/dp/0152045732

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It's a really comfortable and nice bike ride all the way from lower manhattan to here (no hills, or cars, but a few areas with pedestrians).

I gave my sister a how-to commit suicide book for Christmas one year. So... yes I would say that to someone. Anyway, I should leave you alone until you've acclimated to the internet. Meanwhile, please enjoy /r/aww.

Don't know. But now, all those outstanding warrants for low-level charges have been retired.

At one point in time, 42% of New Yorkers had slaves. That's a mind blowing number. Almost $170K a year (and those numbers are 4 years old now) now to put a kid in Rikers for a year. That's another mind-blowing statistic. So we have some history to work through.

Highly recommend "Sapiens", somehow all of us "tribes" survive in places like NYC, it's so amazing.

https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0062316095

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_New_York

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cost-inmate-nyc-ivy-league-tuition-article-1.1471630

> NEW YORK — New York is indeed an expensive place, but experts say that alone doesn't explain a recent report that found the city's annual cost per inmate was $167,731 last year — nearly as much as it costs to pay for four years of tuition at an Ivy League university.

You say you want something but you immediately put yourself out of the race. Read the first few chapters of http://www.amazon.com/Mindset-The-New-Psychology-Success/dp/0345472322/ and you'll learn why your mentality is toxic both to you and the people around you

http://www.amazon.com/Study-Pose-Poses-Coco-Rocha/dp/006232814X

You can pre order it there.

is 1000 poses by Coco Rocha. Which is really 100000 photos, as they were all taken in a rig with 100 dslrs in it.

I have to stabilize and output all 1000 of those starting tomorrow. Not at all excited.

No one else is talking about how Bloomberg's control of schools is affecting education in this country? The whole idea of running education like a business is often terrible for students. Closing schools, firing teachers at the drop of a hat, cutting important programs and focusing the vast majority of resources on teaching to the math/reading tests, diverting resources from public to small experimental/charter schools, etc. There are a lot of problems with what Joel Klein and Bloomberg have done to education in NYC, and many other cities are copying the model. This is a worrisome trend for the future of this country.

I accept that entrenched unions can be a bad thing but ... anyone who thinks Bloomberg's control of education is a positive really needs to read Diane Ravitch's latest book:

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Great-American-School-System/dp/0465025579/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370376345&sr=8-1&keywords=diane+ravitch

The book's website vaguely implies that it might be satire, and so do some of the Amazon reviews. Gawker, on the other hand, doesn't seem to buy it.

I could believe he thinks he's being satirical but is actually just being the problem.

The city itself was going broke and there were massive layoffs of city workers. I just read this book that captures what was going on back then - http://www.amazon.com/Ladies-Gentlemen-Bronx-Burning-Baseball/dp/0312424302

According to The Big Oyster (which is supposed to be about oysters but is mostly NYC history), Broadway was a pre-colonial trade route for oysters from lower Manhattan up to Yonkers on the Hudson and so accounts for Broadway's northwest vector.

>Who is to say who is & who is not a journalist anyway?

Who is to say who is and who isn't a professional in any field? If I make a blog in Wordpress, am I suddenly an IT engineer? If I floss, am I a dentist?

Why is it that people outside of word-based professions feel they can claim to be professionals, whereas no one does that with number-based professions? Is it because everyone uses language?

if you want to learn what journalism is, I suggest you start by reading these:

http://www.journalism.org/node/72

http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Journalism-Newspeople-Completely-Updated/dp/0307346706/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317881819&sr=8-1&tag=acleint-20

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Journalism/dp/1592576702/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1317881819&sr=8-3&tag=acleint-20

http://www.amazon.com/Associated-Press-Guide-News-Writing/dp/0768919797/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1317881819&sr=8-8&tag=acleint-20

http://www.amazon.com/Journalistic-Writing-Building-Skills-Honing/dp/1933338385/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1317881819&sr=8-9&tag=acleint-20

http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/