The Walls of Books at Classics Bookstore Trenton NJ
On Lafayette St. in Trenton is Classics Books. They have the street to themselved when the businesses are closed on weekends. It sits across from an emptied hotel. There are insurance companies and offices around the store. It seems unassuming. You see giant glass windows with books in the windows. There may be a small stand outside with paperbacks. When you open the door to go in, it’s something else.
There will be a pile of books to the right. Lately it’s been cookbooks. There is a table of comics and a stand with more comics. Compact discs of local artists and national favorites are near the front.
Walk past the entertainment section of books and you have a wall of paperbacks. Mystery. Romance. Pick any shelf and the book rows are two deep. You have to move things around to see all that is there. Turn to your left and it’s a row of classic books. Books from the 1940s type classic. We’re not talking modern reprints.
Walk to the end, you reach Sci-Fi. There were a lot of Star Trek books written over the years. I found some obscure Star Wars books there as well. Actually one time I got a current release a few month after it was released. You never know.
We turn to general fiction. From genre writers to award winners. Turn around you have history and politics. The history is wild because it’s not just modern books with modern views. Some of these books go back a few years. Politics is tough. Sometimes a week changes the whole political landscape. It could change all of publishing. The books you see a day after Election Day looks so outdated. Then it comes around again and people wonder what were we thinking at that point.
The front most row is cookbooks, entertainment and sports. The last section is local authors. Genre does matter. There is poetry, graphic novels, mystery, romance, memoir and my books are found there.
The space may be small, but there are thousands upon thousands of of books and worlds and ideas in that little store.
Plan to spend time there.