Classics Books turns a new page

During the current quarantine while the Trenton community is housebound, it’s not only time to pick up a book but time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Trenton’s only bookstore: Classics Books.

Classics Books came to Trenton from New Hope, Pennsylvania, in 2005 after being successfully recruited by the Trenton Downtown Association as part of an effort to bring new retail businesses into the city..

Owner and operator Eric Maywar — who also serves as a City of Trenton economic development specialist — calls his establishment “a community hub, a supporter of all-things Trenton, a supporter of kids who want to read, independent authors, knitters, Scrabble players, poets, and book-lovers of all stripes.”

Sauntering to a different drummer, the used book store is more than just selling and buying. Its community programs have distributed 45,000 free books to Trenton kids. The store has published anthologies featuring noted regional writers, hosts regular readings and workshops, and is board game central — with news of games posted on social media.

In Community News Service interviews, Maywar says his interest started in his home state of Michigan during trips to Ann Arbor. “My brother and I made the rounds of used book stores. There were 25 book stores in a square mile. We went to the original Borders. My brother and I were in heaven.”

He says he doesn’t recall at what age his book obsession began, but it is just one of those things that was always there.

Also on those trips were Maywar’s father, who taught sociology at a Michigan community college, and their mother, a social worker. Both parents were book fiends. Maywar said in one interview that his dad read 85 in the past year.

Maywar says he primed himself for being involved with a store by chance. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English and sociology from Kalamazoo College (Class of 1989) and then had a fine time working at this and that in various parts of the country while preparing submissions to graduate schools of writing. He was accepted at Western Michigan University, where he studied under Stu Dybeck and earned a master’s degree in fine arts. But one of his stopovers on the way had changed his life’s direction.

“I met my wife at South Street in Philadelphia,” he says. The place was Tower Records. “I couldn’t live without her, so I moved out here, to Trenton.” He then worked in a series of corporate jobs until an Episcopal minister he knew gave him his library when he was leaving town.

Maywar says he donated many books to a church for a sale and then began selling others at flea markets. As he was selling, he was also buying and ended up with a basement full of books.

“We’d have friends over,” he says. “They’d play Scrabble, drink wine, get drunk, and buy books.”

It was a small step from basement to bookstore. Before making the leap, though, Maywar did a little market research. He felt that “there was no use even trying in Princeton,” home then to several bookshops.

He then cast his eye toward New Hope, where he estimated demand and potential revenue by counting people coming out of a bookstore with bags. Knowing that the average used book store customer spends $7 per visit, he multiplied the shoppers by that figure and came up with a rough estimate of revenue.

“This is what we can expect,” he recalls. “We can make this happen. This will be great. My wife and I — we didn’t have any kids yet — we’ll hang out.”

Then he and his wife, Donna Maywar, who had worked at Covance but is now assistant director for equity compliance at Princeton University, started a family, and he lost his bookstore partner. “It was just me and friends who would work for books — but it’s not as hard as you think to find people who will work for books.”

New Hope wasn’t quite as good a location for a used book store as he had thought. “It’s great in the summer,” he says, “but the rest of the year, tumbleweeds go through.” And there was another problem, a bigger problem: “Don’t build in a flood plain,” he says. His store was flooded twice in one year. “We had notice. We saved all the books,” he says, “but we lost business. It took a year for business to come back.”

Then through another chance, the Trenton Downtown Association recruited him for its retail incubator on Warren Street near the then active Marriott hotel. He opened there the week before New Hope suffered its worst flood in 50 years in April, 2005. He never re-opened in the tourist town.

Still, dry or not, he was not sure of how well his new location would pan out. “I hadn’t done any market research in Trenton,” he says. “There wasn’t a bookstore, but I didn’t know if there shouldn’t be a bookstore, or if there was a need.”

He says he found Trenton better than New Hope. “In New Hope, if someone falls in love with your shop, he lives in New York, and you don’t see him for a year. In Trenton I have state workers within six blocks. If you win a friend here, he’s here all the time. Lunchtime is effortless.”

In September, 2012, the store moved to its present location at 4 Lafayette Street, where Maywar planned to hold a number of commemorative activities that, at press time, are in limbo because to the State of New Jersey’s coronavirus-related quarantine orders, bans on public gatherings, and other measures affecting businesses. More details will follow. And since future hours may be affected by the current bans, call first.

Classics Books and Gifts, 4 West Lafayette Street. 609-394-8400. book_cellar@mindspring.com. www.classics­usedbooks.com.

Eric Maywar’s Classics Bookson West Lafayette Street celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.,