How to Shop at the Strand (or any good bookstore) with Michael Orthofer & Tyler Cowen

Michael Orthofer is a man on a somewhat insane quest to read every significant novel. Watch Michael shop at the Strand Book Store with Tyler Cowen and take a peek into his mind as he chooses what to read next.

A special thanks to Strand Book Store for the hospitality and wonderful books!

Michael's Book Picks:
"How We Cheat Each Other" by Odd Nerdum
"La Comédie du pouvoir" by Françoise Giroud
"The Seed Collectors" by Scarlett Thomas

Tyler's Book Picks:
"Sitara und der Weg dorthin" by Arno Schmidt
"M Train" by Patti Smith
"The Librarian" by Mikhail Elizarov
"Joseph Walser's Machine" by Gonçalo M. Tavares

Don't forget to subscribe to the Conversations with Tyler Podcast via iTunes, Soundcloud or your favorite podcast app.

[brianscrane]

This was excellent. Browsing world-famous bookstores should be a YouTube sub-genre.

[FPOAK]

I love these kinds of videos. Criterion Collection has its Closet Picks series and Amoeba Records has its What’s In My Bag series; the Strand should do a YouTube series where literary people browse the store and talk about books.

Thanks to Orthofer for all the great recommendations over the years, like Exercises in Style which I just finished.

[ccpIz]

I'm rather interested in what his favorite Dante translation is.

[RaleighBecketGipsyPilot]

It's so nice to see people who enjoy complex, puzzling books. I'm so tired of booktubers going for the very easy, simple to read ones and really only talking up those.

[bookmistress]

Research beforehand. I am not swayed by covers altho a cover can give one a great impression of what is inside a book. A few times a year I allow myself to simply wander around the entire store looking for something new. Then I let my intuition guide me usually with great success!

[JudithSanchez-htjn]

I went to strand before Covid-19 in 2019 and bought 14 romance books at $1.00 per book. Wonderful bookstore to get books that are not in bookstore who sell new books only.

[randolphperkins]

I love both Tyler Cowen's podcast and Michael Orthofer's "Complete Review" website. I disagree with Mr. Cowen's politics much of the time, but I admire his creative thinking and open mindedness in every subject he broaches. He has also had some spectacular guests. This was a great match. I did want to comment on their recommendations near the end. I like international fiction (translated into English), and often enjoy dense, long, and what may be considered 'difficult' fiction by the average reader. To give examples: Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, Marcel Proust, etc. I think both Cowen and Orthafer downplay the immense challenge of tackling any fiction by Arno Schmidt. His work, in my opinion, is barely readable. There are so many layers of literary, linguistic, and cultural contexts to work through, in addition to it being translated from German. May I just say good luck to anyone who can get through the longer novels of Arno Schmidt.

[shafayetjamil]

This is one of my most favourite youtube videos

[neilcanta]

OH MY GOSH! I'M SO ENVIOUS OF YOU!!!❤️

[DeviantFish]

I get the sense that to hang out with Tyler for an afternoon is to receive a non-stop barrage of the most interesting and oddly specific questions you'll ever be asked in your life.

[jdfromparis]

So, I actually own the Odd Nerdrum book which was given to me... I'd say about 10 years ago by Odd Nerdrum... and I still haven't read it. That was pretty random seeing this book here.😅

[danialtanvir]

yo man its danial tanvir from pakistan and i love the book shops of new york city like any thing.
i love the strand and barnes and noble and i can spend hours looking at books over there on religion and philosophy.
new york city rocks man!/.

[wophugus]

Well, what *does* he think of Neal Stephenson?

[MercatusCenter]

What's your process for buying books? Are you swayed by book covers or do you do research beforehand?

[fernandogavino]

Gonçalo M. Tavares! Saramago predijo que él un día ganaría el premio Nobel de literatura. Además dijo que dan ganas de meterle un puño en la cara porque escribe demasiado bien.

[LaWendeltreppe]

M-train by Patti Smith is one of my all-time-favs. The Goldfinch on the other hand- not my cup of tea. And they are so right about the awful German translations. The worst of all are the Harry Potter books. But also many others. I try to read the original as often as possible. But of course Arno Schmidt, translated...this seems to be a hard hard thing to do.

[rolandsievers]

Wenn er "Sitara" von Arno Schmidt mitnimmt, sollte er sich vielleicht auch gleich als Referenztext eine Karl-May-Gesamtausgabe dazu kaufen ...Der geschäftstüchtige Buchhändler hätte ihm dazu geraten... ;-)

[Randomstupidthings]

True reader never ask is this book good how can other tell which book is good

[raywhitehead]

April 12 2021, the Strand has laid off about half it's employees, I read. And the Owner has stated the book store is in deep financial problems.

[samsonwilkinson]

"The French and German section"
Which is in English... doh!