Welcome to the Saucony Book Shop!

Styll [am] I besy bokes assemblynage,
For to have plenty it is a pleasant thynge
In my conceyt, and to have them ay in honde:
But what they mene do I not understande.
-- Sebastian Brant, Das Narrenschiff (1494),
as translated by Alexander Barclay & printed by
Pymson of London, 1509, as The Ship of Fooles

All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been, it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books. They are the choicest possessions of men.
-- Thomas Carlyle

Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a little book.
-- Thomas a Kempis

The Saucony Book Shop, located in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, the heart of scenic rural Berks County, epicenter of Pennsylvania German folk culture (our shop specialty), offers a full range of gently used, rare, and antiquarian books, with many volumes of scholarly merit and an unabashed emphasis on the quaint, the curious, and the utterly obscure.

We make no attempt to be a general-service book shop. Our inventory is highly selective, individually chosen from among the hundreds of thousands of books to which we have access annually at auctions, library and estate sales, and through individual scouts and vendors. We do not handle material that does not meet our expectations in terms of condition or interest to our specialized, idiosyncratic customers.

Despite maintaining a browsing inventory of more than 15,000 volumes, we have minimized our carbon footprint by maintaining our entire operation -- including inventory storage, packing and shipping, and retail sales -- in less than 1,000 square feet.  Our cozy retail space, a mere 416 square feet crammed floor to ceiling with all manner of curiosities, is a former cobbler's shed alongside the Saucony Creek, named after the aboriginal (Lenni Lenape) word sakunk, referring to the outlet of a stream.  Saucony, the internationally recognized athletic shoe and activewear firm, originated as the Saucony Shoe Co. in a building just across the street from us in 1898.

NEW shop hours (effective October 2011): Tuesdays through Fridays 12 p.m. - 6 p.m., weekends by appointment or chance. Do drop by and browse the eclectic selection gracing our shelves, or ask our ferociously over-read staff for recommendations. If traveling from a distance, please call ahead to be sure that we're not off at another auction!

Selling antiquarian books of merit since 1981. Full search and appraisal services; always keenly interested in purchasing quality used books, whether by the piece or by the bushel. Member, Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA).

Thanks for reading about us! Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.