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HOFFSTACK features music recs and stories in your inbox, reviews about movies and the wider culture, stories about living the HOFFMAN LIFE and dispatches from my quixotic attempt to explore every library branch in New York City.
Look at that, that’s me exploring the five boroughs of New York! (This illustration is an original work by Meagan Leavens, whose work you have seen in many Star Trek comic books and elsewhere. She’s very talented and also nice.)
Anyway, there are 40 branches of the library in Manhattan, 66 in Queens, 62 in Brooklyn, 35 in the Bronx, and 14 in Staten Island. (There are also three individual systems; Queens and Brooklyn stand alone, it’s complicated.) Getting to some of these spots may involve me driving, which will make for a nice narrative, as I don’t really know how to drive (but I do have a license, and a car.)
This is not going to be a quick project, especially because I never go to the Bronx or Staten Island. But I plan not just to visit each library, but to poke around the neighborhood, have lunch, check out the local stores, talk to people, and get a sense of the place. Did you know that I used to be a licensed New York City tour guide? You can read about that here.
As I traverse the city, I will listen to my headphones, tuned to the HOFFSTACK PLAYLIST, a rolling recommendation engine of great tunes for all to enjoy.
Now’s a good time to ask a question: who the hell is Jordan Hoffman? Perhaps it’s best just to say he is an opinionated (((New Yorker))) who has never had a real job, but has been writing about culture, mostly as a freelancer, for over 15 years. Currently my work is frequently seen at Foreign Policy magazine, Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, Decider dot com, Vulture dot com, and a great many other places. Over the years I’ve written a lot for The Guardian, The New York Daily News and TV. Guide, if you can believe such a thing. I have bylines at The New York Times, The New York Post, Rolling Stone, Slate dot com, Polygon dot com, Thrillist dot com and I was also part of the debacle at The Messenger dot com, which was hilarious. I got my second start in media, after an early stint at About dot com, at a place called UGO dot com, which is mostly about video games which is funny because I really don’t like video games.
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