“Tuesday afternoon, Reich left Monarch tower early and dropped in at the Century Audio-bookstore on Sheridan Place. It specialized mostly in piezo-electric crystal recordings . . . tiny jewels mounted in elegant settings. The latest vogue was brooch-operas for M’lady. (‘She Shall Have Music Wherever She Goes.’) Century also had shelves of obsolete printed books.”

—Alfred Bester, from The Demolished Man, 1951.