I had three hangs-outs during my time at Columbia. My favorite was WKCR's lounge, as my Barnard girlfriend did a classical music show there, and I could count on her showing up a lot of the time. Beyond that, I had friends there, and it was reasonably peaceful since too much noise would have disrupted whatever was airing.

Second was Chemists, a pharmacy with food across Amsterdam, or the (old) Lion's Den. Neither, however, really wanted people staying around for many hours.

Third, when I just wanted to get away from it all, was a reading room on the second floor of Butler which seemed to be relatively unknown, so there were always plenty of places to sit and work, read, or just space out.

Of course there were many other possible places, like a certain library in Pupin which always tempted me into reading for hours in old files. Columbia is a great place for finding hidden reading rooms and other lost or forgotten places for a person to goof off. And most of us were smart enough not to share the really good ones we had discovered.