Backtrack Books is couched in the gentle mountains of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Once known as Mauch Chunk — a variation on a Lenape phrase meaning “where the bears live” — the town was a nexus of mining and transportation, quite literally fueling America’s Industrial Revolution. In the 1820’s, coal was shipped from the neighboring town of Summit Hill on the world-famous Gravity Railroad, into Mauch Chunk, to be loaded onto boats on the Lehigh River. To increase efficiency, a Backtrack railroad was laid in the 1840’s, enabling empty coal carts to traverse the nine-mile uphill return back to the mine without the aid of mules. Our library is nestled at the foot of Mt. Pisgah, where the Backtrack’s journey began.
No worldly pursuit excites us more than the hunt for an intriguing book. Often we will find ourselves beckoned by a title that — while not particularly aligned with our tastes in reading — inexplicably finds itself in our hands. These are the books that sojourn with us for a period of time, awaiting their true home. In many ways, we consider ourselves the foster family of someone’s future favorite book.
(And, while rooming with us, awaiting its new home, your book has been lovingly guarded by Bunny, the Bengal-Munchkin.)
Backtrack Books 