By Thien Nguyen

Before they walk across the stage, some Princeton University graduates make one final pit stop: Labyrinth Books. They wander the familiar shelves and say goodbye to the faces of the employees. “A lot of times students, when they’re graduating, will come in to say goodbye,” said Virginia Harabin, the bookstore’s general manager. “Or they’ll come back and say, ‘I always came here. I always came here to hang out in the stacks.’”

For those students, this small independent bookstore on Nassau Street was more than just a place to purchase assigned books for the syllabus. “‘This was my refuge,’” Harabin recounted students saying. “This was my place where I could get away.”

Beyond the university, Princeton is home to a rich literary community. Young children arrive for story time, high school and college students fill tables after class, working adults open their laptops, and retirees finally begin the stories they have spent years imagining. Across their various workshops and book tours — which are free and open for all to attend — Princeton Public Library and Labyrinth Books offer spaces to connect. Together, these local institutions transform Princeton’s “literary prestige” into something people can encounter daily. 

As Nora Walsh, the Adult Services Librarian at Princeton Public Library, described, “one of our taglines has been that we are the community’s living room.” Many people drop by on weekdays, using the second floor as a place to work and study. On the first floor, young children can be found running around in the play space. Movies, video games, magazines, CDs, and other physical media are available for rent on shelves. The library also offers Tonieboxes for young children to play with, which are often checked out.

The library is offered as a space beyond just checking out and retrieving books. It’s a space that meets people where they are. RoMa Johnson has been leading writing groups like the Writers Room critique group for ten years. It offers community and feedback for many writers, from young adults over the age of 18 to those up into their 80s. The group is also diverse in its participants. ”There was a woman recently here from China who didn’t speak much English. She wrote in Chinese and then had it translated for others to read,” said Johnson. “The other day, we had a drop-in meeting. There was a man from Iran who was writing stories about his childhood.”

Labyrinth Books came to Princeton in 2007 as a store primarily to sell coursebooks for Princeton students. “Our relationship with the students is foundational for us,” said Harabin. “They needed somebody. So we came to serve students and to serve the university and the faculty there.”

Despite no longer offering the required course materials for students, Labyrinth Books remains a foundational center for this local community. Alyssa Kopanyi, the bookstore’s events coordinator, ensures that “the bookstore is a gateway and a mediator between the university and the town.”

The events hosted by the bookstore take place in the basement, with a maximum capacity of 225. All the events are conversations between an author and an interviewer. During many events, Kopanyi recalled, “I looked out, and everyone had a notebook. This is a room exclusively for writers, and that was really wonderful.” After these events, people would line up to get their copies signed and get advice from the author about their own manuscripts. 

Labyrinth also makes an effort to use their platform to promote local authors. Events like the Writers on Writing Series focus primarily on advertising books by local authors. The bookstore partners with other prominent authors to co-sponsor events, bridging the gap by creating a mentorship between local authors and popular authors. 

The store and library also tailor themselves to a young audience. They frequently come in and request manga, romance, and science fiction offerings. As Harabin described, “I learn so much from our customers every day, all the time. We try to offer lots of things. But we also respond back to things that they’re asking for.”

Both Labyrinth and the Princeton Public Library build Princeton’s literary culture through their daily encounters with scholars, residents, young readers, booksellers, aspiring writers, or even just a curious audience. “This is a place for lifelong learners in so many ways, right?” says Harabin. “It’s all a little bit ineffable, but it’s also just very much part of the fabric of what we’re doing.”