Description: There is nothing more enjoyable for me than whiling a day away in Barnes and Noble. Clean, organized shelves display the newest releases, and tasty lattes await me just a few steps away. A few times a year however, a deep yearning overtakes me. A yearning for dusty shelves, literary chaos, and books I’ve never heard of but know I can’t live without. When I am in this state of mind, I go straight to The Book Trader, where finding “the” book is an adventure.
The Book Trader in Philadelphia is located at 7 N. 2nd St., off of Market Street. As the name implies, you are welcome to come bearing your unwanted literature. Through some mysterious system your books will be inspected and awarded monetary amounts, which you may use as store credit. If lugging bags or boxes laden with heavy books down Market Street for 6 blocks (in August no less) doesn’t appeal to you, feel free to simply enter and browse.
The store is divided into themed sections like fiction, travel, bibliographies, and such. That is about the extent of the organization. Heavy, towering wooden shelves, which always appear to need a good dusting, are stuffed full of others' unwanted books. It always gives me the feeling that I’m in some sort of book orphanage as the various hard and soft back copies cry out to me to take them home. When shelf space runs out the books are merely stacked in piles on the floor, making every step you take a bit precarious. It’s not unusual to travel down an aisle where someone is busy re-stacking a pile of books they just accidentally knocked over. It is nothing short of chaos, but the kind of chaos that a true book lover would just adore to be immersed in. An entire morning or afternoon could easily be spent wandering around the paper labyrinth. If you want to try a book out, just pick a comfy chair on the second floor and read while admiring the view of the church across the street through the giant upstairs window. Just watch out, as the resident cat may decide to make your lap a great place to curl up for a nap.
I’ve purchased numerous books at chain bookstores, but I somehow love the books I’ve bought from The Book Trader just a little more. A giant hard cover biography of Catherine the Great after a professor made me fall in love with her. I discovered a book about religion vs. Freud when I was obsessed with psychotherapy. It seems like no matter what the phase, I always find a book at The Book Trader to match it. The shelves may be dusty, the store itself chaotic, and there are no lattes to be found, but The Book Trader certainly makes finding “the” book just as pleasurable as reading it.
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