Austen’s Shelf pens a new chapter with a brick-and-mortar bookstore in South Jersey

On a warm weekend earlier this month, dozens of shoppers, some of them dressed in Regency-inspired apparel, milled about the city of Bordentown in Burlington County.

Those donning bonnets and hand fans weren’t time travelers or lost actors — they were there to celebrate the opening of a new bookshop with plenty of historic flair of its own.

Inspired by the works of renowned 18th and 19th century novelist Jane Austen, Austen’s Shelf penned a new chapter with the opening of its brick-and-mortar storefront on June 6 at 230 Farnsworth Ave. The bookshop, which held a period-inspired costume contest for the occasion, is part of a growing surge of independent bookstores nationwide.

Austen’s Shelf launched last year as a 98-square-foot mobile bookstore that popped up at festivals and events, many of them in South Jersey. It was born out of founder Charity Herndon’s desire to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning a bookstore, something she decided to pursue after facing a breast cancer scare.

While she ultimately didn’t end up with a diagnosis, the experience changed how the now-30-year-old looked at life.

“I feel like a completely different person than I was before the health scare,” she said. “After you get over that mountain, it’s kind of like, all systems go.”

For Herndon, it was. Within months of her mobile shop’s September opening, she began to contemplate a more permanent space, seeing a desire from customers to “sit and linger.” With long lines forming at pop-ups, she felt like the shop had become as much about buying a book as it was a place for people to connect.

That was further stoked after a dreary winter and one particularly busy January pop-up at Turtle Beans Coffee in Bordentown. During that event, she said visitors told Herndon “we need a bookstore like this in town.”

While there’s already an independent bookstore there, Old Book Shop of Bordentown specializes in general used, out-of-print, and antiquarian books. Ironically, Jane Austen is the 21-year-old shop’s second-best selling author, owner Doug Palmieri said.

Given the two don’t have significant crossover in their business models, he welcomes having another bookshop nearby. Like antique stores, “the more there are in one area, the better for business,” he said, adding that he got a boost during Austen’s Shelf’s opening weekend, which coincided with the New Jersey book crawl and another store’s opening.

Independent bookstores like Austen’s Shelf are on the rise nationally. According to new data from the American Booksellers Association, 605 new bookstore businesses opened in 2025, an 87% increase from 2024.

They’ve proliferated in the Philadelphia suburbs in recent months. Chapter Two Books opened in Wynnewood in May, Forage Books debuted in Kennett Square in February, and two bookstores, Celia Bookshop and Dirt Farm Books, opened in Swarthmore in October and January, respectively. The latter specializes in used and rare books.

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Books aren’t the only media form making a resurgence. A Passyunk Square resident is on the hunt for a place to set up Little Movie Store, a video rental shop in the vein of Blockbuster.

Palmieri — a 20-year member, current secretary, and past president of the Downtown Bordentown Association, which promotes and supports local businesses — attributes the growth of indie bookshops partly to an uptick in younger readers in recent years, primarily those in their 20s and 30s.

“They like the touch and feel of books,” he said. “They like to have the books in their hands.”

DBA treasurer and past president CJ Mugavero, who owns Artful Deposit, sees the rise in retail as something of a reaction to the increased digitization of society.

“What people are craving is the human factor,” she said. That’s helped spur a number of new businesses in the city of Bordentown recently.

Located next door to Austen’s Shelf, menswear and home store Haberdashery and Home debuted this month. And earlier this spring, the historic city welcomed art spaces Bonaparte Boutique and Sleeping Cat, an expansion of studio Leaping Dog. Abyssal Brewing and yoga and pilates studio The Movement also put down roots there in the first half of this year.

Beyond a desire for the tactile, “people long for community, and I think that’s something you can’t necessarily find if you’re just ordering your books off of Amazon,” Herndon said.

That was top of mind when she conceptualized her new space, which is small, but more than quadruple the size of the mobile bookshop. Clocking in at under 500 square feet, it has a “homey” vibe that allows for lingering and connecting. There are two sitting areas, one with a couch, the other a table and chairs. The latter sits beneath a large mural depicting Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy from Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, painted by Philadelphia artist Erik Weedeman.

Like its predecessor, this edition of Austen’s Shelf caters to a wide range of readers, stocking a curated selection of young adult, literary fiction, poetry, mystery and thriller, and fantasy, as well as children’s books.

There’s also a room dedicated to Austen, complete with a gilded digital display showing film adaptations of her books. Herndon also sells a selection of what she’s dubbed “Regency-modern” apparel.

With a permanent space now up and running, Herndon has no plans to stop taking the mobile bookstore out. She’s just refining the schedule and taking on fewer events.

A former Bordentown resident who now lives in Gloucester County, Herndon hopes the shop helps draw visitors to the city. She wants visiting Austen’s Shelf to feel “like an experience where the entire town can kind of be a place to linger.”

If opening weekend was any indication, that just might be the case. Looking out at the historic city during the grand opening and seeing people wander the streets in period-inspired attire, she said the image “just fits like a glove. It’s the dream, literally.”

Austen’s Shelf is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.