That's a big deal, as far as I'm concerned. The town is Maplewood, New Jersey, and the new bookstore, which opened this past week, is called Words - good name for a bookstore. They have a reasonably good selection, though I'd like to see more classics and small publishers represented - but it takes a lot of courage and guts to open a bookstore these days, when you're up against fierce competition from both the big bricks-and-mortar chains like Barnes & Noble and an online behemoth like Amazon.
I use Amazon myself (and am grateful when you do so, as I get a small cut) for some of my books - but I intend to be a regular customer at Words, and I continue to encourage you to patronize your own local bookstore. For those of you in north Central Jersey (think Newark Airport area), Maplewood is a convenient visit. Based on a quick runthrough this morning, they have a pretty good children's section, a reasonable collection of other authors and genres (my wife picked up the new Orson Scott Card book there) and they can order just about anything.
Good independent bookstores - and mystery bookstores - are hard to find. If you know of one, be a customer. They need and deserve your support.
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