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Business & Tech

Read And Wear, Here And There

Bargains In Books And Clothes

Off busy Poquonnock Road in Groton, you’ll find the quiet confines and countless shelves of used books—more than 30,000, give or take a couple thousand—at .

Books literally surround you in this space at 1064 Poquonnock Road (Route 1), about a block from Big Y as you’re headed toward Mystic. Situated in a small plaza between a doughnut shop and a pottery place, Book Trader carries pretty much a little of everything.

Lots of fiction and non-fiction, thriller and true crime, romance and mystery and sci-fi, along with shelves of pink-jacketed books (Chick Lit) and sections for children, pre-teen, teens, gardeners, cooks, large-print readers and more. Audio books, DVDs and CDs also are big sellers.

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In these guarded spending times, Book Trader offers great bargains for readers. Prices begin at 99 cents for clearance books, comprised of a selection of too-many-copies-in-the-store books or those looking too worn out to join the rest of the tomes. Paperbacks sell for half of their cover price, with brand-new, just-read-once hardcovers for $7.95. You’ll pay even less if you accumulate credit when you bring in your own used books. You’ll receive up to $1 for mass-marketed paperbacks and $2 for trade and hardcovers.

Owner Linda O’Hara knows her business and her customers, as she had shopped at the store for 20 years before buying it in 2005. The shop, established in 1976, ranks as the oldest, continually run bookstore in southeastern Connecticut.

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O’Hara works with schools, nursing homes and book clubs, accumulating titles in demand and giving discounts. She keeps up with schools’ required reading lists and also summer reading lists, stocking requests she’ll sell well below cover prices. She also does her share of donating books to those in need.

With the comportment of a kindly librarian, O’Hara tends to those who come through her door, listening to their requests scribbled on Post-it Notes, suggesting titles and directing them to the appropriate section, often following in tow to offer more help. All this, plus, the place smells great—which means it doesn’t smell at all or emit that musty, moldy odor often accompanying the company of so many pages. 

If you’re in the market for more deals, other than books, go to in Mystic, where you’ll find new and consigned clothing for women and men, along with accessories and jewelry. At 22 Greenmanville Ave., with ample parking, which is a real treat here, Pennywise has been offering great deals for more than 25 years. From $3 to $125, you’ll find clearance items, a mix of designer racks, jeans, dresses, scarves, shoes, brand-new boots and more.

The store also carries an array of jewelry—silver, gold, costume and vintage—ranging from $4 to $60, with lots of $20 necklaces.

This place is busy but it gets particularly so in the summer and starting about now, when visitors to our area think it’s warmer than it really is and quell their shivers with a search of the racks for pants, hoodies, sweatshirts and sweaters.

Pennywise fills your need for bargain shopping and it also offers—for those of us who love felines but now have canines—a cat fix, in the form of Steve (as in Madden), an 8-year-old, white and tiger-striped love bug who ambles over on the glass-topped showcase to let you pet him, rubs his head on your hand and strolls back to his place on the counter, neatly nestling on the keyboard of the store’s open laptop. Meow.

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