We’re book people,” says writer and shopkeeper Mark Trecka of Binnacle Books, a tiny treasure of a new and used bookstore in Beacon, NY. “We’re curation-forward’,” he jokes. “There’s no filler here.” While its shelf space may be on the smaller size, Binnacle’s reach in the area is mighty: It sponsors a standalone community fridge, a mini food pantry and, most influentially, a thriving initiative called The Beacon Prison Books Project which connects thousands of incarcerated folks, both locally and across the Empire State, with books. The project, premised on honoring the dignity of prisoners, was an organic outgrowth…
