When Charity Herndon sets up her mobile bookshop for the day, there’s often a line around the block. Once patrons step inside the 98-square-foot trailer that Herndon drives around the state, they’re met with a dose of cozy charm, with its floral wallpaper, fireplace mantel, and cardboard cutout of Mr. Darcy from the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice—plus a variety of novels available to purchase.
Herndon’s year-old mobile bookshop—called Austen’s Shelf, after the author Jane Austen—features curated shelves with a little bit of everything, from nonfiction to classic fiction and Regency romance, from thrillers to fantasy.
“I always want people to find their whimsy,” says Herndon, a resident of Woolwich in Gloucester County. “I want them to feel at home….I just want them to feel like they can linger and stay in as long as they want.”
Beyond selling books, Herndon facilitates book-themed outings near her home base, including audiobook walking clubs, bookmark craft pop-ups, and even a watch party for the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
In June, as Herndon prepared to celebrate the first anniversary of Austen’s Shelf, she opened up a brick-and-mortar shop in Bordentown, giving people the chance to linger a bit longer around the shelves and find more variety.
The name Austen’s Shelf is a tribute to the author Jane Austen. Photo: Matt Stanley
Herndon, an author herself—her book Other Side of the Tracks is a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet—was inspired to start her business during a difficult period in her life. At 29, newly married and facing a potential breast cancer diagnosis, Herndon remembers telling her husband, “I don’t know what treatment’s gonna look like. I know that this is something I’ve always wanted to do, and I wanna open up this bookstore.”
The name, Austen’s Shelf, comes from the kinship Herndon found with Austen, who lived with chronic illness throughout her life.
Amid painful rounds of doctor’s appointments, tests and biopsies, Herndon found comfort in renovating Austen’s Shelf. “Maybe by day, I’m at the doctor’s and I’m getting poked and prodded, and by night, I’m able to watch the sunset and paint the ceiling,” she says. “It was just kind of like my escape, and it helped me not to think too much about what was going on in my body.”
Herndon’s dream became a reality, and she decided to name the shop after Austen as a reminder to herself that she can live with illness and still accomplish her dreams.
The mobile shop officially opened in September 2025, with its first stop at the Cherry Hill Mall.
Herndon sees her shop as a community builder. Readers have told Herndon they’ve met friends in line and had the chance to get to know like-minded people at the shop and at events.
For Herndon, literacy, justice and community facilitation are key. She can take her bookshop to cities or neighborhoods where access to bookstores is sparse. “It’s just my desire for everyone to know that they have a right. It is their right to be able to read,” she says. “It’s what pushes me to want to give people books. It just feels like giving out gold, almost.”
Follow @austens_shelf on Instagram for the mobile bookshop’s locations and for information on the brick-and-mortar shop.
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