They were not fighting, but it was nonetheless a most intense dispute that had been going on for some 20 blocks. Each of them had proved unyielding. Just as they approached a newspaper kiosk, a young man came up to them. Their argument ended immediately. It is a city filled with wonderful bookstores.
People here expect other people to read and to have read.
Here, at least, we are mercifully behind that particular curve instead of ahead of it. Not only are ideas still important in New York, but ideas are still seen as generated by books, so books are still disproportionately important within the culture of the city. Writers all seek resonance. Because it often takes us four or five years or more to complete a book, we sometimes have a sense that we have disappeared physically and spiritually as well as professionally in those off-years. Any sign that what we do matters, that readers not only take what we do seriously but remember who we are and what we did a few years ago, is no small blessing.