Independent bookstores invite exploration beyond mainstream

Bookhouse in Dinkytown and Mayday Books in Cedar-Riverside offer used books, records and sometimes even zines by local artists

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By Rachel Hoppe / The Hubbard School 

Sitting at the top of a staircase decorated with a collage of images of historic Dinkytown and pop culture references is Bookhouse, an independent used bookstore in the Dinkytown neighborhood in Minneapolis.

Opened in 1976, the store offers a wide selection of genres and a used record collection, as well as zines made by local artists. The store is a maze of shelves, organized by genre and adorned with trinkets. 

Bookhouse buys and takes donations of used books from community members, professors and people trying to get rid of their own collections, said Ryan Hinderaker, a Bookhouse employee. Other times, a family wants to donate or sell a deceased family member’s library.

“We bought a collection donated recently to us where we went there to buy books and ended up clearing it out and they ended up just giving us everything because we all really got along,” Hinderaker said. “They were just really happy to see the books get a loving home.”

While Hinderaker said business isn’t always booming, he isn’t concerned about going anywhere anytime soon. Between the store’s in-person and online sales, people are always a market for independent bookstores. 

“We never seem to be doing so well that it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness. Here’s a third bonus for everyone this year,’ but we’ve also never been so bad off that we haven’t survived,” Hinderaker said. “And I do feel like sometimes the store will get a little bit sore, but then the internet seems to do better.”

Independent bookstores, such as Bookhouse and Mayday Books in Cedar-Riverside, in campus’ surrounding neighborhoods provide residents an opportunity to discover books that aren’t necessarily best sellers by putting books that aren’t on the New York Times Best Sellers list in stock.  Book donations invite an eclectic array of books for readers to browse. 

The collections of books received by Bookhouse make their selection more unique than other competitors, Hinderaker said. 

“You get a lot of academic stuff that you don’t see in Barnes and Noble but you also get a lot of weird stuff that you don’t see at Half Price Books,” Hinderaker said. 

Another Bookhouse employee, jimmy cooper, who stylizes his name with all lowercase letters, said many donations come from a place of wanting to ensure the books find a good new home. 

“I think that’s the spirit of most donations, recognizing that their books might not be of great value or not wanting to deal with the process of selling them. But thinking oh, these books deserve a good home. I know this place is a good home,” cooper said. 

Hinderaker said that unlike other mainstream second-hand stores, Bookhouse tries to make use of every book donated, even if it ends up on their free books cart sitting outside the store. 

“If you take your books to Goodwill, they probably throw out some of the books they get,” Hinderaker said, explaining the benefit of donating or selling to an independent bookstore like their own. 

Bookhouse makes an effort to sell every salvageable book that comes into their store, cooper said. 

One customer, Connor Anderson, said he felt the wide selection of books was a benefit of shopping at Bookhouse as he browsed the section dedicated to music. 

“I come here a lot and I can usually find what I’m looking for. Their collection is pretty organized which makes things easy to find,” said Anderson. 

In addition to what attracts Anderson to Bookhouse, Hinderaker said the affordable prices of their books keeps customers coming back. 

“It seems to be a fairly recession-proof industry, I think, in part because if there are people who are buying fewer things, but they are trying to buy them cheaper, they’re not going to go to Barnes and Noble,” Hinderaker said. “They will come to a store like us.”

While Bookhouse caters to all types of genres and readers, Mayday Books, located in Cedar-Riverside, is more niche in its approach. The store caters to customers with political books and is entirely run by volunteers, said Craig Palmer, who volunteers daily. 

The store opened in 1975 during the hippie and socialist movements that sprung up as a result of the U.S.’s involvement in the Vietnam War, Palmer said. Palmer started volunteering at Mayday in 1981.

The store is decorated with signs referencing protests and movements throughout American history, adding to the defiant ambiance of the store where Palmer said several socialist organizations hold their meetings. 

Mayday markets itself as “not making a profit since 1975,” per their website. The store operates off donations, both monetary and books, Palmer said. 

“When people meet here they usually donate,” Palmer said. “Other people donate just because they like the bookstore. Our overhead is not that high, you know, we don’t pay anybody so we make enough money to buy new books and keep the lights on.”

Other times, Palmer said, collections of books belonging to those who have died get donated to Mayday. 

“People my age have been doing this for years, and a lot of them are dying off,” Palmer said. “They usually have a large collection of books they’ve bought over the years.”

Palmer said the donations of these larger collections of books help keep Mayday in business. 

“These people have been at this all their lives, members of different communist organizations and anti-war organizations end up dying and their survivors donate the books to Mayday,” Palmer said. 

The books are sold for cheap, sometimes $5 or less, Palmer said.

Palmer said he wants Mayday to be a place where people can educate themselves about their government and history.

“I want people to learn about this alternative to this rotten system,” Palmer said. “All these books we got aren’t by wackos, they’re by university professors, those with the highest credentials.”

Dave Logsdon, president of the Minneapolis chapter of Veterans For Peace and a friend of Palmer who spends time in Mayday, said while the store might not have the biggest pool of customers, they fit into their specialization well. 

“They’re happy in their niche, which is providing a safe space where a lot of people deemed far-left leaning can meet,” Logsdon said.