The Chatham Bookseller

Great place to get books for school, and gifts for the family. Easily can spend hours in here!

Glad to see one of my all time favorite bookstores still open, but it’s just not the same with the new owners. You should still have fun poking around, though.

After reading all of the reviews, I expected so much more. Two words — NEW OWNER. This place may have been a gem that you could spend hours in but now it’s a place to hand over your money and get out. Don’t walk, RUN from this place, it would have been better to have closed it rather than let it turn into what it is now.

Greatest bookstore in northern NJ. I drive all the way from Newark to shop here and just picked up about 20 books (Plato, Yeats, Roth, Cervantes, Dostoyevsky, etc.) for around 3 bucks a piece. Full (FULL) of classics. Being helped by Jesse (shopkeeper) will make you long for the days when algorithms didn’t make recommendations.

How much do I love a store where I’ve found a good portion of my books on Byzantine history and Arctic exploration, and a bunch of great fiction? And Jesse will let me know when I walk in if there’s anything in new in one of my odd areas of interest.

This is a small used book store located just off Main Street in the beautiful little North New Jersey town of Madison. Just across the street is a beautiful old church, and if you are stopping by this store be certain to check out the rest of the various shops and eateries along the main drag as you will not be disappointed.
The store itself as mentioned is rather small, but that is not meant as a criticism– simply a statement of fact. Once inside the old hardwood floors will creak underfoot, and you will quite literally be surrounded by shelves and shelves of books. The books themselves are highly organized, and if you happen to be looking for a particular title the staff is more than willing to help you look through the stacks. For instance, the first time I visited the store I asked where a particular book might be, and the staff member on duty spent the better part of half an hour looking in all possible locations for it. The latter is what I would call exemplary customer service.
As for the books themselves you will find that the store is mostly devoted to non-​fiction, and has quite the impressive collection thereof. As far as fiction goes there is a decent section of literary fiction, and several smaller sections devoted to genre fiction. For instance, the Science Fiction book section was one solitary book shelf with around 150 books on it; the literary section was much larger– at least four ceiling to floor shelves with upwards to 1,500 books. I would hasten to say that you may not find what you are looking for, but it is highly doubtful that in your search that you will not find a treasure that you have to have.
The store does not have the standard pricing that most used book store shoppers may be used to, but instead the books are priced by the owners. The prices of all the books I encountered were written lightly in pencil on either the inside front cover or title/​bastard page. From a brief survey of various books throughout the store on average it seemed books were roughly fifty percent of cover price, but please keep in mind this is just a heuristic as some were slightly more and some slightly less. For instance, a goodly portion of the books on the Science Fiction book shelf/​section were one dollar regardless of cover price– which meant many were 16% off cover price. Overall though I found the pricing while not consistent to be fair and reasonable.
Overall given the excellent customer service, the great non-​fiction selection, decent selection of fiction (although smaller than average), and the wonderful location and ambiance of the store itself this is most definitely a store worth visiting time and time again.

The store is overflowing, literally, with books for cheap. It is very cramped and well organized by genre and hosts a few chairs to rest and read in. The men who work there are kind and helpful. They will double-​check the back for any title you cannot find, and look honestly upset if they don’t have what you need (which has only happened once).
It’s everything you want and expect in an independent bookseller.