Brutal Truth?

Stairway to heaven?

You look like a bookish sort. Probably spent many happy hours (and lonely dollars) in the Strand. Maybe even remember Pageant in the East Village and Gotham Bookmart on 47th Street? Know your Barnes & Noble from Block & Tackle? Think you know your way around the City's remaining bookstores? Well, I'm betting you haven't been to this one.

That's the Alba House Bookstore on Victory Boulevard operated by the Society of St. Paul. And with its wacky brutalist superstructure, I inaugurate a new series for the blog, From Brauhaus to Our House, focusing on Richmond or "The Rock," i.e., Staten Island. In particular, I'll be looking at some of the weird and wonderful buildings on the Enchanted Isle. This one dates from the early 1960s, and sits just across Ingram Avenue from another favorite of mine, the more modest but equally imaginative Eye Institute. So next time you need to have your eyes checked, make sure you drop in at the Alba. Just remember, as George Smiley points out (in the BBC version of) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, "Barabbas was bookseller."

Geometry has a field day