As the nation observes the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks this week, Penn State students will have plenty of opportunities to reflect on the tragedies of last year.

One opportunity exists at local bookstores, where a plethora of books about Sept. 11 has recently hit shelves.

The Penn State Bookstore on campus has 50 different books related to the terrorist attacks, said Bill Keister, supervisor of general reading and reference books at the store.

"We have received a lot more titles," he said.

Bernadette Myers, assistant manager at Barnes & Noble, 365 Benner Pike, said her store has received the same number of books, "both pictorial as well as things relating to firemen."

"There's just some really excellent books dealing with Sept. 11," she said.

While some of these books appeared as early as November, most titles were released in the last month and a half, Keister said.

"They're probably timed on the year anniversary," he said.

While some stores are seeing a rise in the number of books related to the attacks, others have seen the opposite.

"It's kind of tapering off," said Julie Bandur, an employee at University Book Center, 206 E. College Ave. She said the bookstore has five books related to Sept. 11 in stock.

While they all relate to Sept. 11, the books cover a wide range of topics, feelings and emotions -- from emotional stories about pain and human kindness to tales of "terror sex," a need for intimacy after the traumatic experience that might explain a rise in sexual activity in the months following the attacks.

One book, Jim DeFede's The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland, details the events that occurred in Gander, Newfoundland, a small town where several airlines were diverted immediately following the attacks.

In his book, Defede recounts the generosity of local residents, who reached out and opened their homes to 6,000 displaced passengers, many of whom were frantically trying to reach loved ones who were in the towers.

John Miller and Michael Stone are not nearly as sentimental in their book, The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, which chronicles the mistakes and oversights of the FBI and CIA in the years leading up to the attacks.

Keister said he has not seen especially strong sales for the books at the Penn State Bookstore.

"Nothing really stands out," he said. "Probably because there is such a saturation."