On one of the coldest nights of New York’s winter, hundreds of people lined up outside the New York Public Library. Not for a concert or the latest restaurant opening, but to simply read. The event was simple: read silently for 20 minutes, then turn to a stranger and talk about your book. With the library reaching full capacity, they had to turn people away.
“It was one of those subzero nights,” Brian Bannon, the New York Public Library’s chief librarian, told Fortune. “I thought maybe there was a sneaker sale.”
