SAL’s Guide to Surviving the Seattle Squeeze
January 25, 2019
Avoid the busiest travel times
Find a SAL partnering bookstore in your office neighborhood (look here for a full list) and head over to browse the stacks instead of rushing home when the clock strikes 5 p.m. Waste an hour or two (or three) wandering the aisles of perfectly aligned book spines at Phinney Books, Brick & Mortar Books, or Third Place Books in Seward Park. Who says you have to buy anything? But if something does strike your fancy, remember that SAL subscribers enjoy a 10% discount on purchases at partnering bookstores.
If the temptation of new books is too much, find the closest library branch to your workplace. There’s a total of 27 locations across the city, all with their own personality and set of helpful librarians. Want to plan your reading ahead? We can suggest requesting Zadie Smith’s collection of essays, Feel Free, or Jericho Brown’s collection of poems, The New Testament, to your chosen branch. Once you’ve finished those, talk to the same helpful librarians about what to read next. No one knows how to recommend a book better than a Seattle librarian!
Take public transportation
Learn the advantages of the Link light rail, which travels from Downtown to Rainier Beach – and beyond – in a matter of minutes. Check out a full list of stops that can help cut your commute into a manageable size.
If you’re busing above ground, prepare for transit delays by having entertainment preloaded. It’s easier to listen to a podcast than read a book when your bus is so crowded you can’t move your elbows, so here are some suggestions to download before your commute:
- Season one of SAL/on air, available on our website or Soundcloud
- Anthony Ray Hinton Discusses ‘The Sun Does Shine’ with the Seattle Public Library
- Kara Swisher’s “Recode Decode” podcast featuring interviews with some of the most influential and prominent current business leaders
- Past stories from The Moth to prepare for the MainStage event in May
Try telecommuting
Talk to your boss about working from home one day of the week. Not all workers have this option, so for those who do, staying off the roads completely is a viable solution. (Remember, you’re not stuck in traffic, you are the traffic). Just be careful to stay focused while at home alone—don’t get sucked into binge-reading all of Ilya Kaminsky’s poems, essays, and Twitter posts before his reading on April 1.
Heading to one of our events?
If you’re taking the Link light rail, the University Street Station has an elevator that takes you straight into the lobby at Benaroya Hall, which makes attending our events that much easier. And, if you’re heading to an event in our Poetry Series, the Capitol Hill Station is only a five-minute walk to Broadway Performance Hall.
Grab dinner after work instead of heading home. SAL subscribers enjoy a variety of perks at downtown restaurants, including a complimentary dessert at The Capital Grille (before or after attending a SAL event). Will you choose the flourless chocolate espresso cake or perhaps the warm apple crostata? Or, use Viadoom as an excuse to treat yourself to the albacore crudo and short rib bourguignon at Loulay, where SAL subscribers enjoy 10% off their bill.