BookMarx celebrates its 10-year anniversary. Here's how the downtown bookstore got started

Shuffling through old photographs, Josh Arnett has been feeling "wistful" the last few weeks. This month, his downtown bookstore celebrates a significant milestone: 10 years of business.

It was in May 2014 when Arnett and Aubrey Prugger opened BookMarx at 325 E. Walnut St. At the time, and still today, the bookstore is the only one in downtown Springfield.

Book (and cat) lovers can help celebrate BookMarx's 10-year anniversary all month long, enjoying "BookMarx 10 Year Anniversary Photographic Retrospective," a collection of photos contributed by staff and customers. The collection opens on Friday for May's First Friday Art Walk. Customers are also invited to attend a Black and White Dance at the bookstore from 7-10 p.m. Saturday, May 18. Though the event follows a "Black Tie" theme, folks can wear whatever they feel comfortable in. Refreshments, live music and a mask-making station will be available.

'I just always wanted to run a bookstore'

BookMarx was not Arnett's introduction to operating a bookstore. In the early 2000s, his parents, Kathy and David Arnett, owned and operated Book Castle, which sold used, antiqued and collector books. Arnett was often responsible for buying and selling books.

The first Book Castle located opened in 2004 at 930 N. Glenstone Ave., across from Evangel University. In 2006, the bookstore was destroyed by a fire when a natural gas leak at a neighboring restaurant exploded, according to previous News-Leader reporting. The second Book Castle location then opened at 2252 S. Campbell Ave., just down the road from Bass Pro Shops. The store closed in 2013, when members of the Arnett family began to move away from Springfield, Arnett said.

Even after the store's closure, Arnett continued to buy books. He began selling some online, through websites like Amazon, Biblio and AbeBooks, but his collection kept growing. Before long, boxes of books were stacked in his bedroom, kitchen and living room.

"I just couldn't stop buying books, so I had to channel that into something," Arnett said.

Around the same time, Arnett began sharing his dream for opening a bookstore downtown with his friend Aubrey Prugger. The two had been friends for nearly a decade, meeting as employees at Campbell 16 — now Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Prugger also worked at both Book Castle locations for a few years.

"It was something I was going to be building toward over time and she was like, 'Well, we could just do it now,'" Arnett said of Prugger. "We had started looking for places downtown and then this spot came open and so that kind of accelerated our plans to open because this was such a good space."

That was in late 2013, when Arnett and Prugger began discussing the possibility of opening a bookstore. About nine months later, they were opening the front door.

When it came to opening day, Arnett said he and Prugger had different ideas of how it would go, how successful the store would be.

"I thought we were going to make $2,000 a month total, but she was just like, 'No, it's going to be successful right away,'" Arnett said.

Prugger was right. During the first six months, the two were operating the bookstore and working full-time jobs — Prugger as an employee at Mama Jean's Natural Market and Arnett as an English as a Second Language (ESL) course instructor at Missouri State University's English Language Institute. But by the end of those first six months, they were able to begin paying themselves, working at the store full-time.

Downtown competition wasn't something Arnett and Prugger had to worry too much about. The last bookstore that was open downtown, Well Fed Head Books at 331 S. Campbell Ave., where Hearts of Fire Tattoo is today, had moved from the area in 2008.

Moving on

Three years in, Prugger decided to sell her share of the business to Arnett. Several factors contributed to this decision, including that operating a bookstore is more financially beneficial for one person, she said. Another reason was because Prugger decided to go back to school.

"Josh and I have very similar views about humanity, politics. Having the shop gave us a platform to be very vocal about things that were really important to us." Prugger said. "That was so powerful. We would host events there, (support) causes. We really engaged with the community on another level, and I found that incredibly rewarding."

Fueled by the advocacy she and Arnett were conducting at the store, Prugger obtained her master's degree in nonprofit management from the University of Missouri in Columbia. Today, she is the assistant events manager and membership coordinator for the Downtown Springfield Association.

Though she no longer clocks in at BookMarx, Prugger said she tries to stop in at least once a week.

"I'm so proud of Josh. You don't open thinking, 'When are we going to close?' but at the same time, it's not a luxurious lifestyle, having a new and used bookstore," Prugger said. "He works very hard to make it happen and I'm very proud of him."

Despite name, store deviates from Marxist image

BookMarx gets its name from revolutionary socialist Karl Marx. When asked about the name, Arnett dropped his head and laughed.

"I said Bookmarx just as a joke on our list of names when we were out to dinner trying to come up with something and she really, really liked it," Arnett said of Prugger.

Though Marx's bust watches over the bookstore's entrance and Arnett often has to restock Marxist literature, he worries that the name may give customers the wrong idea, on both ends of the spectrum.

"My problem with the name is I feel like it disappoints people," Arnett said. "I've been in anarchist bookstores or leftist bookstores in big cities where you would enter that store and it's just theory and revolutionary stuff. I do feel like it (the name) disappoints those people and it gives people who are going to be mad the wrong idea."

But Prugger said she found that often, the name goes over people's heads. She's had customers ask her if the Marx character depicted on the sign and front window was Sigmund Freud.

With an inventory of 95% used books, Arnett said the store tends to reflect his interests.

"I try to buy all kinds of books. I try to know what people who want romance or people who read historical fiction enjoy, but the store will always lean in the direction of things I'm interested in," Arnett said. "If I go to a book sale, I'm always going to start in classics or physiology."

Squash and Googey, the BookMarx mascots

For regular passersby, stopping by BookMarx's front windows to catch a glimpse of resident felines Squash and/or Googey is a must. Though Googey has become the store's posterchild — he is the reigning Captain Springfield — it was actually Squash who graced the store first.

More: Banned Books Week inspires new Springfield club, reimagined covers by library artists

Arnett adopted Squash, a 10-year-old fluffball, in June 2014, just in time for BookMarx's first First Friday Art Walk. Soon after, Arnett adopted Googey, an orange cat with an attitude.

Initially, Squash and Googey lived full-time with Arnett and made the trip to the bookstore on occasion. But now, the cats are regular fixtures. Speaking with the News-Leader on Tuesday, Arnett said it's been several months since the cats have left the store.

Recently, Arnett released the first issue of "Googey Quarterly," a zine that promotes events at the bookstore and includes short writings from local authors. The first issue is available on the BookMarx website .

Located near the corner of Walnut Street and Jefferson Avenue, BookMarx is open Monday from noon to 7 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Greta Cross is the trending topics reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretacrossphoto. Story idea? Email her at gcross@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: BookMarx celebrates its 10-year anniversary. Here's how the downtown bookstore got started