Locally Sourced Romance is a new feature that puts the spotlight on fabulous bookstores supporting the romance community! To nominate or suggest a bookstore, please shoot us an email. For a crowd sourced map of bookstores that carry romance, feel free to consult and/or add to our Smart Bitches Buy Romance map! Though be forewarned, it’s undergoing a renovation.
Today, we’re featuring a relatively new bookstore, Books With a Past in Glenwood, Maryland. Please meet Erin Matthews, current owner! Books With a Past also came as a suggestion from reader, Kim in Baltimore who had this to say:
I discovered Books With A Past when we lived on Fort Meade from 2005-2009. At that time, the store was owned by Marvin and Mary Alice Schaefer – retired mathematicians who worked for DoD. Given I was a math major – turned – Air Force veteran, I developed a friendship with Marvin. He wore a long grey beard yet he was very articulate in romance! He introduced me to romance author Eileen Buckholtz (another retired DoD employee) who cowrote romance with Ruth Glick who wrote as Rebecca York (Ruth’s husband is also retired DoD employee).
We moved to Hawaii in 2009, but returned to Fort Meade in 2013. My first trip back to Books With A Past revealed that the Schaefers sold the store to Erin Matthews, who has since fine tuned the romance section. Erin supports the Frederick Book Festival which features many local romance authors.
Tell us a bit about your bookstore and its awesome inception.
Erin: I actually bought the store from an older couple who was retiring in 2009, though it’s been open since 1996. This really was a lifelong dream for me; I’ve wanted to own a bookstore ever since I visited Old Tampa Book Company on vacation when I was eleven. I’d argue that the community is in dire need of a bookstore, even if they haven’t realized it yet 🙂
We’re located in a semi-rural area; there’s really no town center or Main Street, though recently we’ve seen an uptick in local pride. It’s taken me a while to re-organize the store and make it a welcoming environment for residents of all ages, but over the past two years or so I think we’ve really become a local destination. I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to support or enrich our community, and I think we’re starting to get some traction there.
Though I’m sure you have a great selection in general, we’d love to hear about your romance section.
Erin: We’re a pretty big store in general (about 65,000 volumes between fiction and non-fiction), and we currently have about 6000 romance titles. I’d say we’re heaviest on paranormal and historical romance, with some contemporary and series mixed in. My personal favorite is the paranormal/urban fantasy subgenre, so (shockingly!) we carry more of that. My romance section manager likes the historicals, so she’s been convincing me to carry more in that range. It didn’t take much convincing.
Was it a no-brainer to carry romance?
Erin: Completely a no-brainer! Yes, I’m a romance reader myself, but as we transitioned ownership, it became obvious that mystery and sci-fi readers were proud to ask for the sections they wanted, but romance readers always sort of blushed when asking. It was important to me that readers feel comfortable with whatever their favorites are, so we started highlighting romances more widely throughout the store. I’d say of our five employees, three are pretty avid romance readers, which means there’s usually someone here happy to talk romance or give a recommendation. And because we are a used bookstore, we can carry a wider range of genres than many new stores. All kinds of genre fiction (thriller, sci-fi, horror, etc) are welcome here. We like our literary fiction and non-fiction, but we probably sell more of the genre titles than anything else.
In terms of your stock, how do you determine what to carry? Are some authors automatically stocked? What piques your interest when it comes to what you buy to put on the shelves?
Erin: We do have a few authors whose new releases we always try to order, but because we’re more than half used books, it’s sometimes the luck of the draw. Certain authors, like Julia Quinn, Nalini Singh, and Mary Balogh, we’ll always buy from customers, no matter how many of their titles we have in stock. Others, it’ll depend on what we’ve already got (and of course, the the condition the books are in). My favorite thing is when someone brings in entire libraries worth of a few authors. It’s a great way for us to get full series and and really spotlight a particular author. That turnover is what keeps our romance section fresh.
Tell us what you’re reading now. What latest books have blown you away?
Erin: I’m one of those people who’s always in the middle of a bunch of books. I’m currently reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah ( A | K | G | AB | Au ), By Order of the President by W.E.B. Griffin ( A | K | G | AB | Au ), and The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ).
I’m also listening to The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde (narrated by the amazing Simon Vance. I’d listen to him read the phone book). I was a little late to the game discovering Nalini Singh, but at this point I think I’ve read everything she’s ever published I just finished Archangel’s Shadows ( A | K | G | AB | Au ), the most recent Guild Hunter novel. I’m really happy by how she’s brought that series along, but I love her Psy/Changeling series in particular and am waiting on pins and needles for Shards of Hope ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), due out in June.
You can visit Books With a Past at their website, or, if you’re in the area, they are located at 2465 MD Route 97, Glenwood, MD 21738.
Mahalo for spotlighting Books With A Past – I love this store!
Thank you for suggesting it!
This is so exciting! I also live in MD with ties to Ft. Meade and math, and I had no idea this bookstore existed but now I’ll have to make sure to head up there sometime! Used bookstores are basically my favorite thing in the world.
Thanks for spotlighting my favorite UBS.
It also reminds me that it has been a while since I stopped in.
Hmmm, must plan trip soonest.
Man, I wish I lived closer to Maryland so I could check Books with a Past out. Oh well, I’ll keep the store in mind if I ever find my way there. Heck, the cats are enough for me to want to go.
cool! probably an hour and one-half from me, maybe less.
Interesting article. Love the cat on the counter. However, I did find a couple of factual errors. Ruth Glick wrote romance w/ Eileen Buckholts for several years. When the team broke up 15 years ago, Ruth continued writing as Rebecca York and continues writing romantic suspense under the Rebecca York name. Ruth did not write any chocolate cookbooks. You might be thinking of Nancy Baggett, who is a cookie specialist. She has also written healthy cookbooks w/ Ruth Glick. The latest is The 2 Day a Week Diet Cookbook, published last year.
Aloha, Rebecca! Thanks for the correction. My memory is obviously off … but I do remember Marvin so excited to share your cookbooks! Perhaps I was thinking of chocolate when I remembered them. I interact with several DOD employees who remember your colloberations. And, of course, you are a long time support of military families – thank you!
@Rebecca & Kim in Baltimore: I made some edits, so hopefully that clarifies things!
Maryland is the only state I’ve been to in the USA, wish I’d known about Books With A Past as book shopping is one of my favourite things to do on holiday… Oh well maybe next time!