Sidewalk Bookseller, a Disbarred Lawyer, Is Philosophical About Drop in Profits
A disbarred lawyer who sells used books from a sidewalk table in New York City is philosophical about his recent drop in profits.
Charles Mysak tells the New York Times that sales are slowing, and these days he is happy to gross more than $100 in a 12-hour day.
According to the Times, Mysak “is an unlikely bookish hero—he was disbarred as a lawyer in New Jersey and was convicted of pilfering money from clients. But as he peers through his Coke-bottle glasses and alternately puffs and chomps on a stumpy cigar, he speaks in paragraphs and elliptical sentences that betray his voracious reading habits.”
Mysak sees the drop in sales as a reflection of society, the article says. It offers this quote from Mysak: “A decade ago, if you saw someone covering their ear and talking to themselves, you would have thought they were just nuts. Today that’s the norm. It’s as if they are totally consumed by their own world and have no room for the outside. It is complete immersion in self to the exclusion of all else. That has to have an impact on the rest of our lives.”
Mysak notes the recent closing of a bar and a Barnes & Noble, telling the Times, “If a saloon and bookstore can’t make it on the Upper West Side, what better evidence do you need than that of the decline of artistic and free thought?”
