xml:space="preserve">
Advertisement

For the love of books: First bookstore in four years opens at Marley Station Mall

Brenda Benya can tell true bibliophiles by the way will walk into the store and breathe in the smell of the books.

While many have started consuming books on their tablets and smartphones, for Benya and others like her there's still something special about having something tangible to hold in their hands.

Advertisement

Perhaps it's the feel of a worn paperback with cracks down its spine, or the way you can flip back and forth through the pages with your fingertips. And of course — there's that smell, a distinct aroma with vague hints of vanilla and almond.

"It's something about the feel of the book, the smell of a book," Benya said. "You can stick your finger in it and flip back and forth. ... You can read a book and pass it on."

Benya, her husband, Jeffrey, and their family are betting that shoppers at Marley Station Mall will feel the same.

Last weekend, the family opened The Curmudgeon bookstore, on the mall's first floor, between the Macy's and Sears department stores. Selling new and used books, it is the first bookstore at the mall since the Borders Express closed in January 2010, a mall spokeswoman said.

The store opened in a small, 400-square-foot space in Savage Mill about seven years ago. The new shop is much bigger, at 3,000 square feet , Jeffrey Benya said.

He chose the store's name after spending a lot of time in other used bookstores whose owners were "old" and "crusty," he joked.

For years, analysts have predicted that the e-reader would lead to the demise of the printed book. However, print books continue to outsell their digital counterparts.

"You can download books, but some people like turning pages and there's a whole generation of people raised without plugging in," Jeffrey Benya said.

Advertisement

The Benyas live in Silver Spring. Oddly enough, books played a role in their teenage romance, Brenda Benya said.

"When we were dating, what attracted me to him was the library he had in the back of his car," she joked.

Her now-husband would often have history books in his car that would spark long discussions between the young couple, she said.

The Benyas went on to become teachers in Montgomery County. Jeffrey, 57, still teaches history; Brenda, 56, recently retired after 25 years, she said.

The couple had three children, now all adults. Books played a prominent role in their upbringing, said son Josh Benya, 28, the store's assistant manager.

"When you have teachers as parents you're going to get taught early," his mother said.

Advertisement

Part of the reason the shop came to be was to give Josh, who has Asperger's syndrome, a job, his parents said.

In his early 20s, Josh Benya found himself out of work after his previous employer, Hollywood Video, shut its doors.

After trying unsuccessfully to find steady work for their son, they decided to create a job for him at their bookstore.

"When he started, he couldn't look people in the eye," his mother said. "It's given him self-worth, self-esteem, confidence."

Josh Benya has a fondness for Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

"Computer books may be the latest thing, but I'm just not into it," he said.

In addition to providing a job for their son, the store also serves as a "man cave" for Jeffrey, the couple joked.

The couple's two daughters can also frequently be found at the shop.

Gloria Benya-Zwald, 30, is a special needs teacher at nearby Glen Burnie High School. Jessica, 20, is a student at St. Johns College in Annapolis and recently self-published her first novel, "Electronica," a young-adult, sci-fi thriller — signed copies of which can be bought at the shop.

The family is looking to hire up to three additional part-time workers, Jeffrey Benya said.

Shoppers steadily trickled in and out of the store on Tuesday afternoon. One of those was Jack Ingram, 70, of Severn, who was familiar with the Benyas' Savage Hill store.

"There's just something about a book," Ingram said. "It's kind of hard to curl up with an electronic book and be comfortable."

In addition to traditional books, the store also offers a selection of comics, games, DVDs, CDs and vinyl LPs.

"We've been meeting a lot of people," Brenda Benya said. "It's been fantastic."

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
https://www.capitalgazette.com/ph-ac-cn-curmudgeon-bookstore-0905-20150904-story.html
www.capitalgazette.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2020-16
307810
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:C3PJ5ZPSZA7JGWZOY4XDBKTD5QQYHA3U
<urn:uuid:30dd6794-62d1-4eab-bc19-58c0dea5a3a0>
2020-04-01T18:53:54Z
23.217.116.170
text/html
sha1:EM5PHIUDXYEWMAKH3UGWGPYQZABGTDPL
<urn:uuid:a1aea40a-6cec-440f-a7e1-8cbf8949d4a5>
https://www.capitalgazette.com/ph-ac-cn-curmudgeon-bookstore-0905-20150904-story.html
response
<urn:uuid:452fc502-e374-47ee-8f81-19f255278978>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-16
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for March/April 2020
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-82.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.16 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/