Every semester, those of us without scholarships, are asked to submit an enormous wad of cash to the NYU Registrar and every semester we are then allowed back into the endless halls around Washington Square where some teachers will blow our minds, some will bore us, and some will speak minimal English. We all hope for the former because thats what were paying for - plus, it becomes way easier and way more fun to attend a class that is doing the brain and body good.

Anything beyond a post-adolescent indifference is a lucky because, lets face it, were a difficult bunch to satisfy, and this semester, upon introduction to the Fales Library, my indifference was washed away. Books are my favorite thing on this Earth and to suddenly learn (no, I had no idea prior) that NYU claims ownership to hundreds upon hundreds of rare books, including countless first editions of works that are centuries old and completely out of print, Im sure made my eyes twinkle with delight. Despite the rings of fire that one is made to jump through just to take out some books, one at a time and kept on a green foam platter, it is completely worth it. A friend and I took out first editions of Austen, Fielding, and countless other Eighteenth Century writers, held the books in our hands and remembered why being an English major was awesome - writing is really one of the only ways to know what happened throughout time, how tastes changed, how ideals changed, how the world changed, and those books are evidence of all those things.

Dont think that the collection is limited to just old classics, anything considered "rare" that NYU has gotten its hands on is available at Fales, including great modern zines and alternative literature and works of art, as well as work before the Eighteenth Century. The website describes Fales by saying:

The Fales Library, comprising nearly 200,000 volumes, and over 10,000 linear feet of archive and manuscript materials, houses the Fales Collection of rare books and manuscripts in English and American literature, the Downtown Collection, the Food and Cookery Collection and the general Special Collections of the NYU Libraries. The Fales Collection was given to NYU in 1957 by DeCoursey Fales in memory of his father, Haliburton Fales. It is especially strong in English literature from the middle of the 18th century to the present, documenting developments in the novel. The Downtown Collection documents the downtown New York art, performance, and literary scenes from 1975 to the present and is extremely rich in archival holdings, including extensive film and video objects. The Food and Cookery Collection is a vast, and rapidly expanding collection of books and manuscripts documenting food and foodways with particular emphasis on New York City. Other strengths of the collection include the Berol Collection of Lewis Carroll Materials, the Robert Frost Library, the Kaplan and Rosenthal Collections of Judaica and Hebraica and the manuscript collections of Elizabeth Robins and Erich Maria Remarque. The Fales Library preserves manuscripts and original editions of books that are rare or important not only because of their texts, but also because of their value as artifacts.

To learn more about Fales, visit the website and dont hesitate to contact the officials at fales.library@nyu.edu, because Mike Kelly, the Director of Fales is by far the nicest guy and he feels even more insanely passionate about these rare books than I may appear to be.