By all accounts, spring has officially made an appearance in Brooklyn and the surrounding boroughs. And to me, nothing spells spring quite like the dusty tomes on display at the Park Avenue Armory. Every year – the past 53 years, to be exact – the New York Antiquarian Book Fair invites book dealers from near and far to show off their most desirable books, from rare, first editions by Jack Kerouac, Flannery O’Connor, or Charles Bukowski to the well-worn, original texts of Shakespeare. For those of us who still enjoy the weight of book in our hands, the book fair is a time to celebrate the writers we admire most.

Purchasing one of these literary gems may make a dent in your wallet, but to look for a day is a mere twenty dollars. But after a glass of wine and some perusing, don’t think we weren’t tempted to pull out our check books.

And then of course, there are the usual oddities that you only see in New York. Such as…

A man reading by the light of an ape. Reading lamps are extremely overrated.