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I really enjoyed going to The Whitney Museum of American Art yesterday. I'll probably write a more extensive post about the art later, but I was amused by some of the books on sale at the museum. I saw a book written by a prof I'm TAing for next semester. It wasn't immediately obvious to me why The Whitney would sell Media Reception Studies, but I remembered they also have film series. At the counter, they had a slim volume, Habermas: a Very Short Introduction, which hardly seems like an impulse buy. I'm not sure what communicative action has to do with American art, either. I was intrigued by a CD they had on sale, Noise New York, which features cuts from folks like James Chance, Bush Tetras, and DNA. Since No New York is basically out of print hella expensive, this seemed like a good opportunity to get No Wave groups on CD, but I balked at the $23 price tag. I looked for a Destroy All Monsters book/video/sticker package I had seen there a few years back, but apparently the museum wasn't carrying it anymore.

Probably the funniest title I've seen in New York was a book I spotted at The Strand. I wondered if the author of Sex Pots: Eroticism in Ceramics came up with the title first, then conducted the research. I took a pass on this book, but I was tempted by a Jim Houser book I saw there. Although The Strand had it discounted, Babel seems to cheaper on Amazon. I managed to walk out with only a 55 vegetarian cookbook. Even if the recipes suck, it's the price of a magazine.