This is the fourth in a series of reports on great places to buy books on the visual arts. Another gloomy day in New York made me hunger for some flash and glam in my book shopping life. So I hopped the F train for - that's right - D.U.M.B.O., and the powerHouse Arena. This self-described "laboratory for creative thought" is home to photography and art book publisher, powerHouse Books.

Photos: Peggy Roalf

The soaring gallery and event space, its 24-foot-high ceiling graced by a fabulous mid-century modern chandelier that hangs nearly halfway down, is currently given over to pH's annual holiday sale. The Arena, which is the only bookstore in this mainly residential neighborhood, carries books of all publishers, including a highly selective inventory for kids. Cookbooks, memoirs, gift items, holiday wrappings and cards abound. But it was photography books, from the namesake publisher and beyond, that prompted my visit this week.

So many books, so little time! Stacked high on their display counters, and running along the ribbon-like shelves below, hundreds of titles are organized by subject, with aptly coined counter card messages. "Gift Books for the Urban Aesthete" includes pH titles from the world of fashion and Hip Hop such as: The Breaks: Stylin' and Profilin' by celebrated British rock photographer Janette Beckman, who came to New York in 1982 and fell in love with the Hip Hop scene; Hair Wars, David Yellin's exploration of a fantasy hair styling culture that's "proud, loud and outrageous," with an essay by Johanna Lenander; Maripolarama, photographs of the cool personalities that inhabited Manhattan's downtown post-punk club scene, including Basquiat, Debbie Harry and Madonna, to name a few; and Look, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' portraits backstage at Olympus Fashion Week.

The "Gift Books for Activists" heading includes such topical subjects as Darfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan, a collection of images by eight prominent photographers from Magnum Photos, VII, Sipa Press, Panos and Vu; and Iraq: The Space Between, Christoph Bangert's view of the gulf that divides different people, cultures, and military organizations since the American invasion of the country, with an essay by Jon Lee Anderson.

Photo books from other publishers include Magnum Magnum, the agency's 60^th anniversary celebration of its renown image makers. This 564-page colossus, which weighs in at 16 pounds, is displayed on its own tinsel trimmed table. Across the way are some current titles from Aperture, including a new edition of the large format classic, Lisette Model, and from Charta Books, John Jonas Gruen's The Sixties: Young in the Hamptons.

The month-long holiday sale is a mecca for bargain hunters, with lots of books for just $25. Stacked on one palette alone were these goodies: A.L.T. 365 by Andre Leon Talley; Full of Grace: A Journey Through the History of Childhood by Ray Merritt; and Disco Years, the photographs of paparazzo Ron Galella.

The sale runs through January 4, 2008. The powerhouse Arena, at 37 Main Street, Brooklyn, is open weekdays from 10 am to 7 pm, and on weekends from 11 am to 7 pm. Please check the website for information or call 866-99-ARENA.