Downtown Books

You fine folks will just have to forgive me for not including photographs with this review, but… this place creeped me out so much that I didn’t dare pull out the camera and I ended up «checking in» once I got outside, because… well, yeah. This place creeped me out. Big time.
For those who aren’t aware, this is an adult bookstore/​video shop. That’s fine, I’m no prude, I remember the bookstores on Baltimore’s Block district, when it existed. Peep booths and the like don’t bug me a bit. But… wow, this place. There must be some serious pervs up in Lancaster, which blows my damned mind. I could not believe some of the stuff I was seeing up in here.
If you’re into adult fetish material, you’ll be in heaven here — absolute heaven. We’re talking any fetish you could possibly think of, and maybe a few that you haven’t. They have DVDs of it all over the place, quietly organized by genre — «black», «Latina», «straight», «transsexual», it’s all here. Along with a nice-​sized (hah hah) collection of marital aids and bondage gear. Yeah, so this didn’t creep me out, really — like I said, I’ve been round the block a time or two. (Though seeing a box cover for «Fat Disgusting Women Volume 64» was a bit unnerving, as there’s 63 other versions of this apparently floating around somewhere.)
No, what skeeved me out was the clientele. There was a guy in there next to us perusing said box cover who I would swear was hyperventilating (or maybe dry-​heaving, I couldn’t tell which). An 80-​year-​old man (I swear) came shuffling out of the peep show booths and was just giving me a look like he’d had a good old time back there — I was whispering to my husband, «Oh my God, do NOT leave me alone in here.»
The countergirl was just sitting there. I guess she’s seen all of this before, but wow, she must have some stories for her family when she gets home at night. Wow.
This is your place if you want to find the adult video titles that Randall from «Clerks» was ordering over the phone. Ladies, I would NOT advise that you come in here by yourselves — the people who shop here are just… wow. I never knew so many people in Lancaster was into clothed-​female-​nude-​male scenes, but eh. It takes all kinds to run a world.
The sign on the door clearly says «Infants and Children Not Permitted.» Indeed.
Interesting place, if nothing else.