What to read to understand New York

It does not take much to be a New Yorker. You don’t have to be born there, nor even to live there for long. Just move there. You will need to find a go-to bodega in order to feel at home. And you must learn how to say “not for nothing” in the right context. Much of this should come easy. Perhaps because New York serves as a character in so many film and television series, many people feel they know the great city even from a distance. In reality people, and that includes Gothamites, probably know less than they are letting on. Read these four books, and watch one documentary, however, and you’ll get a good grasp of why New York is the way it is.