Can someone recommend several good hostels in NYC ASAP?

I've only stayed at the Aladdin. It was clean enough, and very central to transit and Times Sq. I think it was about $25 a night for a dorm room, you do need to book ahead.

I've stayed at the Aladdin at the same time as lurkerbongmaker. I prefer the HI up town, it's more of a neighborhood-y neighborhood, with good cheap latin restaurants everywhere.

http://www.hinewyork.org/

Hi there!
My son used to work for Hostelling International.Here is their NYC site. I think it is pretty good. Good luck.

I've stayed at HI/AYH hostel (see Kate's post) at 103rd & Amsterdam several times. Yes, it's a pretty nice neighborhood with LOTS of food venues nearby.

Two blocks to the subway (1&9) lines (Broadway/103rd), and 3 more blocks north is where the M60 bus to/from LGA starts/ends.

Most impressive for me was that they use the electronic card-key locks on the rooms. Clean place, reasonably quiet and priced. (there is no x in my REAL eddress)