The Last Book Store Left In Allentown

I've got to admit I didn't know John Furphy's 'Another Story' bookstore still existed. Nor did I realize Allentown lost all these kind of single owner book stores and that's a damned shame!

There's two ways someone can help this guy out. He has setup a online site where people can donate. The second is stopping by his store at 524 N. 18th St. and purchasing a book or two. I'm sure the guy would prefer customers over having to ask for money.

I continually urge people to shop local from small business owners and try to do the same myself as much as possible. They need our help.

While your out in that neck of the woods also check out the events going on at the Agri~Plex at the Fairgrounds. Today there's a 'Children's Consignment Event' going on. It runs through Sunday. The place was packed this morning (Friday, Sept. 27, 2013). Families were lined up outside.

Also check out the open all year-round 'Allentown Fairgrounds Farmers Market'. Many of the prices can be half of what these items costs in a grocery store.

These are to name but two. The point is we need to support one another starting at the grassroots level. Over the past 30 or 40 years shoppers deserted Allentown in droves in favor of the large corporately owned malls and their big box stores. Look what we've become. It doesn't have to be this way.

What sets Greenwich Village, Chelsea and a few others apart from the Times Square crowd in New York City is the amount of support small shops receive by New Yorker's looking for a great meal for little costs. If your one of those chumps tourists that goes into New York and pays $7 for a steamed burger, it's time you took a downtown train. Around the 'times Square' area they cater to the rubes who don't know their way around beyond a few feet from the bus & train terminals where they came in. I wouldn't be surprised if these small downtown shops get the same number of tourists as Times Square (if not more). Times Square appears to packed because it's only a few blocks to either side. On the other hand these small quite neighborhoods are spread over miles of small streets and alleyways.

This is what I would like to see for Allentown. Sections of the city where small shops would group together. Each with their own separate characteristics With all that said, here is a video which features "Another Story"


'Another Story' on Facebook

Save Another Story---The Next Chapter
Another Story Used Books, founded in 1984, needs funding to retire it's debt and continue into the future. "My name is John Furphy and I am the owner of Another Story Used Books, the last and only full-line bookstore in the city of Allentown. The store was founded in 1984 in downtown Allentown, and I bought the store in 1997. A few years after the purchase the downtown started to have problems, with a perception of crime that changed to reality over the years.

Seven years ago Another Story opened for business in the West End Theater District, with its new location at 524 N. 18th St. A lack of funds prevented the store from properly advertising the move, and the store has not yet achieved the customer base it had while downtown.

For half the time that Another Story has been in this new location I drove taxi in the evenings to pay the bills, until an accident two years ago last April when I drove into a parked car near the end of the shift. Working 90 hours each week between the two jobs had nothing to do with it, and neither did the fact that people I knew were dying at the rate of several a month, no more than the passing of my father and the inheritance of the family home in the coal regions and the resultant emotional upheaval associated with that have any effect. Because of a head injury suffered in the accident a doctor had my license pulled. Apparently I am not as thick-headed as I thought. Last December I ran out of funds, and the store has survived since on the kindness of strangers and friends.

Another Story is an excellent used book store with an emphasis on the literary and scholarly but not limited to that. Several years past the Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olin Butler spent two days in the store while at the local college, and as he departed said the store had more depth and breath than many larger stores. Stores like this are needed, stores where books of old still live, stores that carry more than the flavor of the month. Another Story does not carry all books, it is a small store with about 20,000 volumes, but the selection is not bad, with over 40 separate sections. The other day a customer walked in and inquired about a book that covered Lenin's return by rail to Russia. Though not in stock, I told him the book was To The Finland Station by Wilson. Last week a customer came looking for Hemingway and I was able to tell him what was in stock without looking.

Through the years I have enjoyed guiding many younger customers in the world of literature. If the future of bookselling is relegated to online shopping these interactions will be lost, and this is one of the reasons that Another Story needs to survive. For those kind enough to contribute, the store has no physical perks to give, but for $20 I'll write you a bad, or maybe even a good poem. If your donation is three figures you will receive a short story or something close that is guaranteed to be full of painful puns and bad jokes. It's the best I can offer, aside from my profound thanks for helping save this store, and that is Another Story.More Info can be found @ the 'My West End" blog.