In the shadier northeast corner of the store, you'll find a desk (feel free to sit) amid a variety of sections in the fine arts, belles lettres and humanities. In order from just-past-the-desk-on-the-left and clockwise round the room:

Bibliophilia (also known as Books on Books) hosts a smattering of books by booksellers and bookbinders, books on the technique of book design and the professions of book maintenance, and books celebrating reading, reading groups, and book-craft.

Linguistics includes both technical texts and what might be termed 'linguiphilia' books, like Richard Lederer's Anguished English.

Reference includes a variety of dictionaries, quote collections, and other useful compilations of words, facts and resources, including atlases (individual maps can be found in the bottom drawer of the desk).

Philosophy is maintained by Kurt Sylvan. It's grouped by historical and ideological divisions (so that ancient philosophy is at the beginning, and recent analytic philosophy and continental philosophy are separate at the end). Helpful signs on the shelves' edges explain whose writings are in which section, but if you can't find something or want to know more about an area, feel free to ask Kurt. He's read a lot of everything.

Eastern Philosophy and Religion includes the sayings of Confucius, the Tao Te Ching, Buddhism, Hindu, Zen, and more.

Spiritualities includes a selection of alternatives such as some Native American beliefs, nonreligious books on meditation, metareligious studies, and more.

Western Religion begins with a section on general religious studies and spirituality, then proceeds through Islam and Christianity (with a subsection of Christian Bibles and reference material) to our three-part section of Judaica, which includes historical, sociological, theological, and other works, then a shelf of Hebrew Language and a subsection on Holocaust Studies.

Poetry begins with a selection of multi-author anthologies and goes on to include over 1,000 volumes of classic and contemporary work, including century-old editions and recent chapbooks.

Essays hosts the usual suspects like Emerson, Bacon and Montaigne, but also Huxley, Sedaris and Diane Ackerman, as well as a variety of recent collections.

Writing - books about the writing process, issues of style and technique, and reference and suggestions for writers.

Mythology and Folklore isn't just for Zeus and family. We carry folktales from six continents, as well as some Brunvandish urban legend collections and scholarly texts, too.

Shakespeare includes a broad variety of editions of individual plays or collections of plays, as well as biographical, historical, critical, and humourous material, and historicritical, and criticohumorous, and biohistorical....

Theatre includes history and criticism, as well as the reminiscences of actors, directors and other artists in this field.

Plays include individual plays and single-author collections, with multi-author collections at the end of the section. (If you are looking for multiple copies of a play, watch for brown Ghostnotes tucked inside the front covers - these tell you whether we have additional copies available. We try to keep large quantities of popularly studied or performed works in stock.)

Literary Criticism includes works from several schools as well as scholarly material about particular authors.

Literary Biography is organised by subject, so that books about Jane Austen precede books about Graham Greene, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. If you are looking for works by a particular biographer, feel free to check at the counter, where we maintain an index by author.

Diaries, Journals and Letters contain a wide range of the personal writings of authors, artists and historical figures.

Entertainment begins with books about history and criticism of films and television (with a few selections about radio and circus), then continues biographies of directors, actors and other performance-arts professionals.

Antiques and Collectibles from coins to Shaker furniture.

Art by museum collection, region, school, and individual artists, including a selection of Biographies of artists.

Art History and Criticism.

Dance with technique, history and biography included.

Music with separate subsections for Opera, Sheet Music and Music Biographies (recordings in cassette or CD form are in the top two drawers of the desk; a selection of older piano music and LPs, mostly classical and jazz, can be found in Leiden's Room on or near the piano).

Art Technique for drawing, painting, calligraphy, and more.

Photography portfolios and collections, with its own section on technique.

Architecture from both artistic and engineering points of view, as well as books about famous architects and picture books.

Before Nialle came to the bookstore, she spent about ten years studying the works of James Joyce, and while she finds Stephen Dedalus a bit - well - in need of the mentorship Leopold Bloom has to offer, she always respected the breadth of Stephen's interests. Funnily enough, they're all here: religion, philosophy, criticism, drama, and the arts. So, in honour of a character who haunted Nialle for a decade, this room is named for Stephen Dedalus, and decorated chiefly with a useful poster that shows where each scene in Ulysses takes place in 1904 Dublin.