Libraries Morphing into Bookstores

HT: JS.

Libraries morphing into bookstores. Nice idea. And librarians know which books are being read.

QUINCY — It’s Saturday afternoon, and the bookstore is buzzing. Young mothers snap up picture books for less than the price of a cup of coffee. A health coach thumbs through the latest book by Andrew Weil. The arms of an avid fiction reader sag under a stack of paperbacks.

“The price is perfect. This place is a gift,’’ said Ellen Murphy, 60, of Quincy, as she perused selections of gently used books at the shop that opened last fall in the Thomas Crane Public Library.

Brick-and-mortar bookstores are closing faster than you can say “Kindle Fire.’’ But from Worcester to Truro, bookstores are resurfacing in an unexpected place: the town library.