by Sue Ann Rybak

The doors of Mt. Airy Read & Eat, formerly the Video Library, 7141 Germantown Ave., are locked, and an attached note says, “Read + Eat is now at 7165 Germantown Ave." (the site of the Alma Mater restaurant).

A brief glance in the storefront window confirms that the store has moved. An eclectic pile of books lay scattered across the floor, piled one on top of the other. A red librarian’s cart stands in the corner next to wooden shelving and white metal brackets on the floor.

The good news is Mt. Airy Read & Eat has not closed. It has simply relocated to the ground floor of Alma Mater. Besides the bookstore on the lower level, the restaurant also features a record store on the third floor.

Now, patrons can have a beer in one hand and a book in the other or flip through an assortment of vinyl records while sipping their cappuccinos. Of course, customers can still enjoy live entertainment and a delicious entree at Alma Mater, as well.

Mt. Airy resident Jake Sudderth, owner of the independent used bookstore, said the decision to combine the bookstore and the restaurant was a practical one.

“We were cannibalizing our own audience when we opened Alma Mater just a few blocks away,” he said. “It was easier to have everything at the same location.”

He said the building at 7141 Germantown Ave. had a great storefront.

“The mainstream look of the place is delightful and it has a great presentation in the front,” he said. “However, if we wanted to fit it out for more food or books, we would have to start taking down walls. And since we are already invested in 7165, it just didn't make sense to spend more money doing renovations there. We wanted everyone to come together.”

Sudderth said many concert venues also feature a record store and that vinyl records are making a comeback.

“Alma Mater hosts a lot of concerts – especially local bands like the GTVs,” he said. “Many of the band members live just a few block from here. They [the GTVs} recently released their first LP, “Sh’Bang!,” on Italy’s Teen Sound Records. They are a great example of local groups that are exclusively vinyl. It's kind of fascinating. I never would have guessed 20 years ago that we would be talking about vinyl.

“We don't carry many new vinyls. We have an assortment of records from various eras. We wanted to provide patrons with a potpourri of entertainment and value in the same place.”

He added that even in today's digital age, there is still a demand for used books.

An article entitled “In This Digital Age, Book Collecting Is Still Going Strong,” published last year in The Wall Street Journal, said the market for rare and collectible books was stable, noting that “many younger collectors are drawn to books for their decorative or atmospheric quality.”

According to the article, the younger generation (those in their 20s and 30s) get their news from digital sources, but often prefer printed material when reading for pleasure.

Sudderth agreed.

“Books are heirlooms,” he said.

He added that he believes many of his customers buy books “for their artistic merits as well as for their reading pleasure.”

“They really like the feel of books and the tactile connection we have with them,” he said. “They really want to try and preserve something. I think the same thing applies to vinyl records. It seems particularly important to people at the beginning and the end of their lives.”

He said children love holding books and looking at the artwork and that kids who want to learn how to read love being read to and owning a copy of their favorite book. Parents, he added, who want to encourage their kids to read, love to buy children's books.

He said older adults will often turn back to books when they start to have difficulty with their vision and that reading on screens has been shown to cause eyestrain. Sometimes, he added, carrying a laptop or kindle to the beach or the Poconos isn't always practical.

“Books are something I don't see going away," he said. “It's something people want to have access to.”

That's just one of the reasons why Sudderth decided to open a second bookstore. The Roxborough Read & Eat, 6156 Ridge Ave., officially opened in November 2015, but renovations were not complete until last month.

Sudderth said the square footage of the new bookstore at the site of the former Forster Shoe Store building in Roxborough is almost the same as the 7141 Germantown Ave. location. He said that the only real difference between the two bookstores is the movie theater.

“Everything else is the same,” he said. “We have replaced the little theater [at the old store]with a mezzanine. It goes from a feel of a bygone movie theater to something out of Harry Potter or the interior of a classic library."

The Roxborough Read & Eat used bookstore hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday to Wednesday, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday to Saturday. For more information go to roxboroughreadandeat.com.