As a writer and avid fan of Sex and the City, The New York Pubic Library had inched its way up the bucket list.

Who doesn’t remember Carrie Bradshaw walking up to the white-marble masterpiece on Fifth Avenue and 42nd and deciding that it’d be perfect for her upcoming nuptials because, as Carrie put it, it is “the classic New York landmark that housed all the great love stories”?

In the scene, Carrie is returning the book “Love Letter of Great Men, Volume I”, which for the record, I tried to find while there too.  (The library contains 88 miles of shelving and holds over seven million books.  Amazingly enough, any one of those seven million tomes can be requested and delivered to the library’s main circulation desk within ten minutes or less!)

I wanted to tie my experience to something personal. But when I couldn’t find a copy, I decided on the next best thing. Why not create my own lil’ version?

So that’s exactly what I did. Right then and there, I asked a nice man to meet me for coffee by the library steps on what later proved to be a very memorable Saturday afternoon. We spent hours admiring the building’s Beaux-Arts structure, drinking cocoa, people watching, and giggling like teenagers. It was perfect.

The lesson? Next time you’re looking for a juicy love plot, write yourself in as the lead. Oh, and beautiful libraries make for great first dates.