Stepping into Amanita Books — Eau Claire’s newest used and specialty bookstore — feels like stepping into my dream.
Its hunter-green walls are lined with ornately framed paintings, its ceilings draped with strands of low-hanging lights. Its dimly lit ambiance casts shadows against the wall-to-wall shelves overflowing with books. But the pièce de résistance is the steel footstool pulled straight from bookstore central casting.
“All this place is missing,” I tell Severin and Jaimie Marshall, the store’s owners, “is one of those wheelie ladders.”
“Yeah, but you’ve got to have taller ceilings to need a wheelie ladder,” Severin explains.
I smile. I suppose he’s got me there.
While Amanita Books may look like my dream, it’s actually Severin’s. He’d hoped to open a bookstore as his retirement job, though shortly after moving from Washington state to Eau Claire in 2019, he decided to get a head start on that dream. Since Eau Claire lacked a used bookstore, the Marshalls hoped they might fill the void. Since opening in November of 2023, they have.
If you’re looking for the latest best-seller, you might be best served elsewhere, but if you’re looking for a treasure, Amanita Books is where you want to be.
“I love used bookstores,” I say, “but if I owned one, I’d have a hard time selling books from my collection.”
“Sometimes it really is hard seeing the books go,” Jaimie confesses.
“I have to say goodbye, sometimes,” Severin agrees (he means literally). “We had a few first printings of H.P. Lovecraft and Harlan Ellison, and those were hard to let go of.”
Thankfully, plenty of rare books remain, many behind glass in the display case at the front of the store. The store’s collection of first editions is eclectic, from Stephen King’s cinderblock-sized “It” to a thin, autographed copy of Mary Oliver’s “Blue Iris.” Also of note is the shop’s vast assemblage of vintage pocketbook paperbacks, which stretch to the length of several shelves.
But the best part of a used bookshop is striking up conversations with fellow bibliophiles, and on this night — though the store is closed — the Marshalls and I chat for nearly an hour. We talk about everything from why bookstores matter, to the books that got us hooked.
Jaimie became a book lover at a young age, thanks to “The Boxcar Children” series.
“They just had such a huge impact on my imagination, you know?” she says.
(I do know, having blurred through the series myself.)
As she and I ponder which of the Boxcar Children we most hoped to be (I’m a “Henry,” Jamie’s not sure), Severin says, “I was always more of a Raistin from ‘Dragonlance.’”
I smile; no surprise there. With his long beard and kind eyes, Severin’s got a bit of a mage look, a perfect fit for Raistin the wizard.
As our tour continues, Severin pauses to point out an antique black typewriter atop a shelf. “William S. Burroughs used to have one pretty close to that,” he says, “which is why I put a Burroughs book next to it.”
It’s just one of the many personal touches that make this shop unique.
“This whole store feels very ... intentional,” I say, admiring the typewriter and its accompanying book. “Like everything has its place.”
“We want it to make some kind of sense,” Severin says, walking me through his book classification system. “Back here, we start with philosophy, which sort of goes to religion, then the metaphysical, witchcraft, psychology, self-help ... .”
You can learn a lot about a person by how they organize their books — by color, shape, size, author or subject. In stores like Amanita Books — where the search is half the fun — highly specific subjects give browsers like me a fighting chance. I might’ve scoured those shelves for the day, but out of respect for the owners, I figured I’d restrain myself to their business hours.
“We opened this to fulfill a dream,” Jaimie says, “but in that, we really want to be here for the community. And we won’t be successful unless we can make our neighbors happy.”
“We want people to come here and sit and relax,” Severin agrees. The bookshop isn’t just about his dream; it’s about providing a space for others to open a book and dream a little, too.
In the era of eBooks and audiobooks, there’s something extraordinary about a place like this that prioritizes paper and ink. It’s a reminder that you can’t dog-ear an eBook or savor the scent of an audiobook. There’s no heft in the digital format, and while their lightness is a great perk to folks on the move, having to lug a hard copy book around reminds us that perhaps we don’t always have to be moving.
True literary leisure means having the courage to press pause on multitasking.
It means entering a space like Amanita Books, where you can crack a book, pull up a chair, and dream your way to wherever the pages lead you.
Most Popular
Comments / 0