Local bookstore is a haven for those who love to read.
By: Elaine Worden
Standing on the sidewalk outside the Cranbury Bookworm, the store looks like Mecca for, well, bookworms.
A large porch frames the front of the house and stacks of books surround the front door. Six of these books can be had for $1.
Opening the large front door to the mid-1800s home, the scent of old books wafts out. A long staircase with a wooden banister leads up a wall lined with framed artwork that is for sale. A long hall off the foyer stretches to the back of the house and is lined with bookshelves full of hardcover new arrivals.
To the left and right is room after room of bookshelves squished against each other, each stuffed with books. The store truly is a maze of bookshelves offering bookworms hours and hours of endless browsing. If someone can’t find what they’re looking for, the staff will try to locate what the customer wants.
The shelves are neatly organized, yet messy at the same time. Customers can browse rows of bookbindings, some crinkled with age and use, all stacked in rows. The books are not alphabetized, but they are sorted into their respective sections by topic and genre. Part of the second floor space is even devoted to selling candles from The Candle Barn in Pennsylvania and a small selection of antiques.
It’s an eclectic mishmash, and that’s exactly how the Bookworm’s customers like it.
"It looks a little messy, but that’s part of what they like," said Andrew Feldman, who has been working at the store for eight years. "They like the hunt of it."
From top to bottom, each room on both floors have little nooks of shelves, filled with world history, American history, trashy romance, sci-fi, horror, cookbooks, sports, nature, gay and lesbian themes, timeless classics, literature, literary criticism, nonfiction, fiction, art, music, self-help just name it.
"We don’t really have one section that dominates, we do cater to so many different types of people, we don’t generalize and that’s what keeps us going," said Mr. Feldman.
Downstairs, in the room where the checkout counter is located, are shelves and shelves of antique books. Some have leather bindings, some are a little worn and some are in excellent condition. All of them are locked up behind glass.
"We’ve had books from the early 1500s all the way up to things that are on the best-sellers list," said Zoltan Barz.
Mr. Barz has been working at the Bookworm for eight years and is also a professional librarian at North Brunswick Library.
The store is currently undergoing minor renovations so some of the genres are being shuffled around to make things easier to find. Mysteries, for instance, are being moved downstairs. They are a popular genre with the older crowd, some of whom find hiking up the stairs daunting, if not impossible.
But if someone can’t find what they’re looking for, all they have to do is let the Bookworm staff know. They keep a card catalog of customers and books they are looking for and will keep an eye out for those items.
The Bookworm also sells books to national and international dealers, as far away as South Africa, Poland and England. The staff will buy books at estate sales and also has a weekly buying schedule for walk-ins that want to sell their old books.
When buying books, condition is the most important factor according to Barbara Hughes, who has been with the store for 13 years. Sometimes a book can be important because of what’s on the cover or because of its content, but they will turn away books in disrepair.
The books they don’t buy are book-club editions, Time-Life or Reader’s Digest, or books with pages that are underlined or stained. But the selection is so good that it draws customers from miles away.
Book dealer Melissa Donovan, who owns the Bethlehem Book Loft in Bethlehem, Pa., was scouring the shelves on March 7 for material to bring back home with her. A native of South Jersey, Ms. Donovan has been a Bookworm customer for about five years.
"I don’t go to stores that often, but this is just the best one around," she said as she packed two overflowing boxes of books to take with her.
The Bookworm will also make house calls or go to yard sales to pick up books, especially if someone is selling a large quantity of books.
The staff and the customers have a family-type of relationship that goes beyond the print and pages.
"We always say that if this place were to ever close down, we’d have to form a support group for everyone," said Ms. Hughes. Bookworm customers run the gamut when it comes to personalities and preferences. They have many regulars, some of whom come in every day.
"We have a wide variety of customers, but the one thing they all have in common is that they like books," said Ms. Hughes.
One thing that distinguishes the Bookworm from other stores is the staff’s belief that the house where the store is located may even be haunted.
"We’ve had people come downstairs and say that they’ve felt a presence," said Ms. Hughes.
However, she said she has never seen any ghosts or spirits in the Bookworm, although there have been some strange occurrences. A couple of weeks ago a security alarm went off on the second floor, but not on the first floor. After careful inspection, they discovered nothing was out of place, and, even weirder, the alarm, which is triggered by motion, had gone off when no one was upstairs.
But despite the alleged ghosts and heavy lifting of boxes of books, the staff can’t complain.
"You meet so many interesting people, and they all have their separate interests to learn from," said Mr. Barz.
The seven-member Bookworm staff, which also includes Larry Feldman; Susannah Hughes, Ms. Hughes’ daughter; Jim Hodges and John Ashwood are part of a unique business.
"There’s not too many stores like this around anymore," said Mr. Barz.
And it’s true. With big, corporate bookstores now within miles of most towns, stores like the Bookworm are rare. But that doesn’t mean they’re less appreciated by book connoisseurs.
"There are people that have said that they think this is the best bookstore they’ve ever been to," said Ms. Hughes.
The Cranbury Bookworm is located at 54 N. Main St., Cranbury. They are open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Their buying schedule is Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.; and alternate Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. For more information please call (609) 655-1063.