Bookstores here are so scarce that many readers have trouble naming one. Amiri Baraka, New Jersey’s former poet laureate, buys books at the Montclair Book Center, nine miles away. The chancellor of Rutgers-Newark, Steven J. Diner, orders online or shops for books in New York City. Alix Takouezim, who moved here two years ago from Bayonne, says she often borrows books from friends or colleagues for her 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. In 2007, Newark ranked last among the nation’s 69 largest cities in the number of bookstores per capita, with 15 stores for 281,000 people, or 0.53 stores per 10,000 residents, according to a study titled “America’s Most Literate Cities,” by Jack Miller, the president of Central Connecticut State University. (For what it’s worth, New York City, well known for having many bookstores but also many people, ranked 63rd.)
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