One of my goals in 2017 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I picked up Sunny's Nights: Lost and Found at a Bar on the Edge of the World by Tim Sultan new, which is rare for me. But when I heard about it, so close to bar savant Sunny's death, I had to read it!

Sunny's is a special place, and Sunny was a special man. More than a drinking establishment, Sunny's bar was a gathering place, a creative vortex, and for Tim Sultan, a life changing event.

Put together as a series of vignettes, stories and small chapters, Sultan starts at his unexpectedly finding Sunny's and ends with time's slow, inevitable, move forward. It's clear that he loves this place, and the man behind it, as more than just a bar and bar owner, but it's also clear that Sultan thinks highly of himself and sees himself as an intragal part of Sunny's (which perhaps he was). This, along with the common held belief (by Brooklynites) that Brooklynites are a superior variety of people, makes this book a little overblown and pompous. Now, perhaps, having been a Brooklynite, I have a biased take on this. Although I found Sultan himself to be a bit bloated, I still really enjoyed this book. Again, having been to Sunny's many times, and having my own arsenal of stories, moments, and memories about the bar, I may be biased. The lyrical way in which Sultan describes his time and memories does well to transport the ready to a time and place. Overall, I liked the atmosphere created by the stories of an otherworldly bar at the edge of the world. I enjoyed the feeling of being cocooned in a strange place and time that this book evokes. I would recommend this book to those who read books about Brooklyn, NYC history, bars, or old souls.

Have you read any books about places you've visited? Were they written about in the way you experienced that place?