Some of us live in Bushwick, some in Greenpoint, some in Ridgewood (NY, not NJ); a few live in Manhattan, but generally not in tony Upper West Side digs. A conversation at our last event involved one member exulting over having recently gotten 28 books for $23 at The Strand.
But a love of personal freedom, and of wearing less clothing when it’s 90 degrees outside, knows no socioeconomic bounds, and this past Saturday one of our members invited us to her penthouse apartment, complete with 3,000 square foot sundeck. (Sundeck? At 3,000 square feet, let’s call it what it is, a whole second apartment.)
And it was a perfect day for it: clear and bright and sunny, but with clouds scudding across the sun just often enough to keep you from feeling achingly hot. We had close to two dozen people show up, including some old-timers, some first-timers, and everything in between. We had a barbecue grill turning out mouth-watering morsels (thank you, Fresh Direct), and we had a blow-up wading pool big enough to hold eight or nine of us at once. We had copies of Aristotle and The Master and Margarita, Carl Hiaasen and Agatha Christie, Nicholas Sparks and Dan Brown. Plus comics — one of Eric Shanower’s Oz adaptations and, thanks to Craig Yoe, the gorgeous hardcover collection Jack Cole’s Deadly Horror.
But most of all we had the sublime pleasure of lounging around under the sun in as little or as much clothing as we felt like (which for most of us meant nothing at all). And why not? Who did it hurt? We know there are some people who would wag a finger at us and talk sternly about morality, but aren’t they the same people who think things were better back in the Garden of Eden?
Well, postlapsarian we might be, but this Saturday we made ourselves a little Eden. How do you like them apples?
Thank you
looks like a nice day out in the sun, but arent you worried about eyes in the surrounding buildings? Your hotel balcony appears to be a bit more enclosed than this space.
🙂
Not worried in the slightest. Let ’em look. Maybe it will inspire them to enjoy their own freedom similarly someday.
Well spoken. The group is out in Central Park..what is the difference?
Where I am, the morning temperatures are still in 50s so I’m jealous of the sun… and the afternoon free time to read.
Finding a place where you can enjoy the total freedom, very nice indeed !!
It’s called “Co-Ed” where are the men?
Look. You’ll see them. (I think there are two in the background of photos in this post and several in our Washington Square Park post. Not our fault if you don’t notice them.)
Yeah seen them… I suppose this show what some really look at 🙂
What a nice place for you girls going not only topless, relax and read a good book.
So nice to see your group enjoying your freedom and the nice weather together. No danger of any tan lines for you ladies!
What were the women looking at over the railing?
Life.
I’m so glad to see some of you ladies are not giving in to the popular habit of shaving yourselves. It’s also refreshing to see women who accept themselves as they are, and not some surgically altered form. It makes me wish I lived closer, I would love to join you in sunning yourselves with my also not so perfect skin.
Dan Brown, nooo!
Indie comics yes yes yes 🙂
Is that a Diana+ camera in the last two photos? will you post any pictures taken with that camera. Diana+ camera are so cool.
We’ll be glad to, once we develop the roll. 🙂
Reblogged this on clothes free life and commented:
COED readers enjoying the sun and reading a variety of text with as little clothes as they choose top freedom and clothes free living
After perusing the photos, it appears that only two or perhaps three of you are from Bush-wick. Or maybe it’s the other way around and those other bushes got wicked!
Can I help it that my main reaction to your comment is to wonder whether you meant the last word as “wicked” meaning evil or “wicked” as a past-tense form of the verb “to wick”?
Looks like a fun afternoon.
Back in the 60s we used to say ‘If it feels good do it’. Therefore, do it but try not to offend and don’t push it on anyone. I wish I was back in New York and 40 years younger! Have fun!!
Looks like a fantastic afternoon of fun and friendship had by all. Plastic pool…what a great idea. Loved the group poses.
I miss summer.
Nice. I had a rooftop in Brooklyn years ago, but never got more than myself and my then-wife naked on it. Now I want to move back (as if I could afford that place now) and host nekkid parties.
Wonderful. you have taken it to the next step. let’s normalize nudity altogether.
“Where are the guys?” Honestly, I personally don’t care where the guys are. I think the photographer has great taste and enjoy the Readers photographed.
“Life?” Really? Not looking at a dead body? This IS a pulp fiction society, after all. And New York.
trop beau, que j’aimerai habiter dans l’immeuble en face . Enfin des filles naturels qui ne se prennent pas la tete . Encore plus de photos, bisous
Lovely
Hey she’s reading comics!
comics…Must be the New York Times
One mans Eden is another man’s Hell.
Personally I spent the weekend in a graveyard reading Terry Prattchett and Niel Gaiman while getting some sun on my bleached bones and BBQ’ing Kangaroo.
Funnily enough I had more reservation about grilling my “Blue ‘Roo” there than I had about showing the world that I’m whiter than frightened milk.
Funny how our minds work.
It’s all in there. Keep pushing it in the right direction. 🙂
I want higher resolution… so that I can make out what they’re reading. Mission accomplished O.C.T.P.F.A.S. 😀
Presumably your hostess is one of your newer members. Does this mean that you won’t be going back to the Colonial House Inn for some time?
No, we’ll go back there. We like variety.
Ah, the blow-up pool. Always worth the headache. And Shanower is just wonderful.
Looking at you all I’m struck by the thought that if I invented a device that made it easy to read sitting down, while not using your arms and the book is always slightly higher than the readers shoulders . . . That would be cool.
Whereas I was once a big fan of this organization, that is, what I took to be its political message, it’s come recently to merely be a venue for certain individuals to show off their naked bodies (How many times can you post pics of yourselves completely nude on the rooftop? Not only isn’t it representing anything to the NYC public, but it’s grown tiresome). No harm in that of course but certainly not what I took as the organization’s purpose: to educate the public in a grassroots manner. You’re all lovely but if I wanted to see nude women I’d look elsewhere. I was hoping this site and this organization would focus on something more political and not confuse the politics with the erotic.
What confusion? We have deliberately been combining the erotic and the political from the start. We’ve never made any secret of the fact that we are doing what we do first and foremost for the pleasure of it, and only secondarily for any political or social purpose. In fact, our fondest dream is that one day we could engage in these activities without there being any political dimension to it at all, just as men do every day and have done for decades. Because that’s not the world we live in (yet), we do have a message to convey, and we believe our blog posts and photos — all of them — do convey that message. If you don’t agree, that’s fine; there’s no reason you need to keep visiting our site. We’re sorry to disappoint anyone, especially someone who was once a “big fan,” but if you wanted us to be activists exclusively and not enjoy or share the physical and sensual pleasures of being topless or naked outdoors, you were misguided from the start.
I think they are making an honest statement. If you have followed this blog you will notice they are adding new members with each post. This is not an isolated group of a few open-minded women. The concept is growing as more women and men support this freedom of expression. At some point we may see groups in San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, and other cities….Maybe even De Moines, IA.
I wish I could start an Eastern Ontario branch (albeit likely with more sci-fi, fantasy and historical fiction than pulp fiction, knowing the folks I do around here)…. I just have no idea how to make it happen.
We didn’t know how to make it happen either. We just talked to people we knew whom we thought might be interested, and some of them were, and then picked a day that worked for everyone, and went out and did it. As simple as that.
I personally enjoy the nude and topless women on here.
It is nice to see natural well shaped women.
As for erotic, not quite, maybe for someone that hasn’t seen erotica, burlesque or porn, these pictures are near mundane, the subjects in the pictures are the only thing that saves the pictures from being boring.
Any sexiness is due to the women themselves, and they would be able to do that with their clothes on.
I can’t really stress this point enough.
Seduction and eroticism is enticing the imagination to wonder freely.
Nudity often becomes vulgar before it becomes erotic.
It is the difference between becoming “aroused” (in the lack of a better word) and setting your mind adrift.
These pictures here are (at least for me) far from erotic.
They make me imagine joining you with a few frozen daiquiris and a good book (Good Omens being my favourite) to thoroughly swelter in the summer heat. They witness a relaxed atmosphere free from religious doctrine and without need for governing regulations.
It heralds personality and freedom more than eroticism.
(Although I do suspect that at least one of you do this because you like showing off your body and revel in the attention that follows.
Nothing necessarily wrong in that case either.)
read a m.kundera’s novel named “joke” and i invite you to my home in croatia,best wishes ivan