Gonna Read a Lot of William Burroughs and Be Depressed

Jeff Gammage of the Philadelphia Inquirer drops in on Germ, a Philadelphia bookstore specializing in the dark underbelly of the new age and other things They don't want you to know:

[T]he shelves bear no listings for Romance, Mystery, Sports or Parenting. Instead it's Mind Control, Secret History, Drugsploitation, Nature Gone Bad, War and Why We Need It, and Our Mysterious Brain.

The description of proprietor Jennifer Bates ("Black hair. Black pants. Black boots. Black shirt. Black wristwatch.") reeks of art-school dropout stereotypes, right down to the Velvet Underground records, except for the gun collection, but heck, I used to love browsing in Amok Books (now known as Koma) when I lived in LA, and it's probably my best bet for finding certain Robert Anton Wilson books on the east coast, so I just might have to give this place a try the next weekend I'm in Philadelphia...