Readers place

If a 50 cent purchase keeps me occupied for at least a month I’d say that’s a good deal. My favorite spot to visit during my work lunch is a used bookstore next to Thrall Library in Middletown. Run entirely by volunteers, this shop isn’t a musty-smelling room overflowing with piles of auto manuals and copies upon copies of the classics. It’s organized by genres like travel, economics, law, gender issues, and more. I always see best-sellers, hot topics, and current magazines.

The store regularly accepts donations and a curated section of fun new arrivals sits on a shelf near the entrance. Prices range from .10 for National Geographic magazines to $1 for hardcovers. Magazines are .25 and softcovers go for .50. I picked up a biography: Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki, about Suzuki who authored the modern spiritual classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. The store next to Middletown Thrall Library which first opened in 1843 as a main station on the Erie Railroad.

Thrall Library Use Bookstore: https://fomtl.wordpress.com/our-store/