Standing Still in a Concrete Jungle

Ever spend 14 hours straight on the New York City subway? All morning people watching in a Manhattan elevator? All night on a city beach trying to document the mating ritual of ancient crabs? Justin Nobel has a simple philosophy: the best way to know a city is to stand in one spot and observe it, for a VERY long time. In "Standing Still in a Concrete Jungle", Justin "stands" in some of New York's most famous spots--Central Park, the subway, a Park Slope coffee shop--but also grittier places no tourist would ever go; a street corner in a rough part of the Bronx, a forgotten cemetery, the ER waiting room. Peeling away the surface of the city, he finds a murky nether-metropolis populated by evil genies, Revolutionary War ghosts and his child doppelganger. If you've ever been fascinated with watching the meaningless minutiae that occurs every day, and might not be so meaningless at all, this shamanistic little travel book from an award-winning magazine journalist will surely pique your interest. And who knows, perhaps you're in it.