September, 2005
Life at the New York Public Zoo... er, Library
Manhattanites often express envy the life of a freelancer: the freedom, the flexibility, the chance to sit in pajamas all day and eat cold cereal out of a box. But go into any Starbucks and you'll find legions of freelancers who can't handle the distractions of home. And the two of us--working on a book and a doctoral dissertation during the last two years--couldn't even handle the distractions of Starbucks. So we settled on meeting each day at the main branch of the New York Public Library. The grand main reading room brings seriousness to any project, we reasoned, and it offers more light than most Manhattan apartments. But while we were there in search of a quiet working environment, we found our fellow library patrons wanted something a little different.