This laundromat in Chinatown/Little Italy offers free entertainment to waiting customers. When it’s warm enough out they’ll sit in one of two chairs provided outside the facility.
Against the window on the left is a free library of books. They look to be Chinese versions of steamy Harlequin romance novels.
Not sure if you can tell from the photos, but these books are outside, not inside, the glass.
To hold the books in place, a shelf bracket holder has been attached between the glass and the tracks for the roll-down security shutters. That way, at night when the shutters are rolled down, no one can steal the books. And by leaving them outside they don’t need to take up space with a display shelf inside.
http://www.core77.com/posts/73629/Todays-Urban-Design-Observation-A-Laundromats-Space-Saving-Free-Entertainment-Solution-for-Customers