I moved to Northampton, MA approaching a couple of years ago, now. In the early days of the pandemic. I gravitated, as always, toward local cafes and bookstores.

One day, early in my time in Northampton, I browsed some books in Tim’s Used Books. The curation in Tim’s Used Books somehow reminded me of Rodney’s Bookstore in Central Square, Cambridge. The defining characteristic of Rodney’s Bookstore is the pile of scattered books in the center of the store. The topics in that pile, in my memory, ranged across craftsmanship, design, architecture, philosophy, science, fiction, maybe even graphic novels… never in any clear order or arrangement (whether thematic or physical), but always in an “interesting” one. My sense of this pile was always that a curator had been involved in making the pile — more than once had I wondered whether that curation was conscious or a natural artifact of the curator(s). I frequently walked out of Rodney’s Bookstore with a new book or two in hand.

On that visit to Tim’s Used Books, I chatted with what turned out to be the owner, Tim. It turned out Tim knows the owner of Rodney’s Bookstore (not Rodney, that’s a dog).

I didn’t buy anything at Tim’s Used Books on that day. But on a subsequent visit — quite literally feeling guilty for not having paid something for the experience of browsing the books on the earlier visit — I did acquire three books, one of which turned out to be a keeper.

Today, I was saddened to learn that Tim’s Used Books in Northampton has shut its doors. No bookshelves line the walls. The location is empty. I called Tim’s Used Books other location, in Provincetown, and Tim confirmed that he just couldn’t make commuting between the two locations work. I thanked him for providing that bookstore and wished him success with the Provincetown location. I am glad he still maintains the one in Provincetown.