Micawber’s Books

Before Border’s and B&N, there was Micawbers. Despite dire predictions of the demise of independent bookstores, Micawbers survives in its original location in a charming half-​timbered building in the village of St. Anthony Park. This is a real bookstore: the authentic smell of bound printed paper, undulated wood floors, old easy chairs, antique computer register, compete with bookmeister Tom, the proprietor.
They’re up against Amazon, e-​books and ubiquitous little library houses. Support local independent businesses — the backbone of America.

Micawber’s is perfectly placed in this European-​village-​esque neighborhood of St. Paul. It’s just adorable. And the slight creaks of the floor boards as other customers are perusing the shelves charms the crap out of me.
The selection isn’t huge here, but it is very well curated. Don’t come here expecting to find an obscure sociology book from ten years ago. Rather, come to browse the new releases, some of the more popular or acclaimed books of the past few years, local authors and subjects, and a decent bargain section. I often come here to browse with no intention of buying anything, but I always end up walking out with something interesting.
There does seem to be some sort of frequent buyers program, that offers 10% off all purchases. I have often been asked if I’m a member but never offered a membership. Hm. Must be super secret very very very VIP or something.

Uh-​oh, I feel a reminiscence coming on. Sorry. Here goes. Back in the day, this store was not only a bookstore but a record store. Half the store was filled with record albums. The first item I ever bought there, in 1971, right around the time the store opened, was not a book but a record album, «The Beatles Again» (later re-​named «Hey Jude»), which included stuff the Beatles had never put on albums before such as «Rain,» «Old Brown Shoe,» «Lady Madonna,» and «The Ballad of John and Yoko.» Great album, needless to say, which I took home and played on my Columbia Masterworks stereo with a smoked dust cover, which cost $ 95 (headphones included) and got me through high school alive. (Barely got me through it. Thank you, Beatles and Stones. Thank you, Rob Sherwood of KDWB.)
Micawber’s was launched by — let’s see now, I wonder if I remember their names — Ned Waldman and Norton Stillman. They were major figures in Upper Midwest publishing. They ran The Bookmen, a big book distribution company in a warehouse in Minneapolis, a sort of wholesale place I guess, a substantial enterprise with many hundreds of cartons of books passing through weekly. Waldman and Stillman had a yen to jump into the dangerous waters of retail sales, did a lot of market research, and picked St. Anthony Park for their venture. The closest decent bookstore in those days to the Park was B. Dalton Bookseller at Rosedale, which was started by Dayton’s in 1969, the year Rosedale opened. B. Dalton had this very expensive parquet flooring. It was generally pretty crowded. I’ll tell you what, no one would have believed you in 1971 if you had said that the Dayton name and the B. Dalton name would both disappear into the history books. But I digress.
Waldman and Stillman took great pride in the funny and ironic name «Micawber’s,» which is the name of a Dickens character who has constant money troubles but is confident that «something will turn up.» W.C. Fields played Micawber in a movie. I don’t remember many customers in Micawber’s in those early days but apparently something always turned up. (What turned up, I would guess, was a check written by Waldman or Stillman to cover the rent.) The place hung on. If it could survive in 1971, perhaps it can survive the massive challenge of that big online company named for a river.
In those days, the two biggest retail establishments along that stretch of Como Ave. were drugstores named Guertin’s (Como and Carter) and Miller’s (Como and Doswell). I frankly have no idea how St. Anthony Park supported two drugstores but it did. Guertin’s had an awesome magazine rack where you could stand for 10 minutes and read Mad magazine; at Miller’s, this cranky lady started yelling at you after five minutes, instructed to do so by her bosses, the pharmacists, who stood some distance from the fray, heads down, working on prescriptions generated by Dr. Fred Arny’s office next door. Guertin’s and Miller’s both had fountain service. (Is the phrase «fountain service» still recognizable? It means you could get a burger and a shake. Both stores did a very nice bit of business at lunchtime.) I would guess the floorspace devoted to Guertin fountain service was at least twice as large as Miller’s and included booths. A small Coke at Miller’s cost a dime; if you bought your school supplies at Miller’s you’d get a little card for a free Coke. (Big whoop, huh.) Both drugstores were air-​conditioned which meant a whole lot in July. (I don’t think Micawber’s had AC in those days.) Meanwhile during these years, the Bibelot Shop was gathering steam. It started in 1966. In 1971 it was still a tiny hole in the wall but you could see it had potential just by the quality of merchandise picked out by Roxana Arbisi, as she was known then (her son Mark was a wonderfully talented artist who signed his stuff RBC). The Bibelot Shop sold rock ‘n’ roll posters among many other things. I bought the coolest Bob Dylan poster there in 1968.
But, yeah, this review is for Micawber’s. It’s a very fine independent bookstore worthy of support and in fact worthy of love. The books are well-​chosen. The staff offers useful suggestions. You’ll find little cards, mini-​reviews, taped up next to certain books loved by the employees. The vibe is not merely comfortable, it’s homey. I make it a point to spend 50 percent of my book dollars at independent stores like this one. I can’t totally resist the Amazon juggernaut — let’s face it, Amazon’s service is awesome — but I can assuage my conscience a little bit with the ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ strategy. I hope that for Micawber’s, for at least another 40 years, something will always turn up. As W.C. Fields might say, I’ll drink to that.

A Unilocal review reminded me that I haven’t been in a long time. I used to go all the time and got some nice investments along the way. Naturally I head toward the mysteries. They don’t have anything or anyone I’m into. However they did have a few of our local author, Larry Millet, who writes a local Sherlock Holmes series, and TC history. It was all what everyone is reading. I do like that they have many large print books. So I go to the Arts and Entertainment area. Lots of books on old rock and roll, and blues. I found a book that I totally stopped looking for it was so obscure. Only an old rocker like me would flip when I saw PSYCOTIC REACTIONS AND CARBURETOR DUNG BY LESTER BANGS. He was a rock critic for Creem magazine in the 70’s. He passed away in the 80’s and nobody wrote or had a vocabulary like he did. I probably won’t even understand it, but at least I got it. You can get on the discount list immediately. They have an abundance of cookbooks, fiction, children’s, and a unique magazine rack. This is the most ironic bookstore of the recent and obscure. Just not the inbetweens.

Such a lovely little bookstore

My review is probably a little biased because I grew up going to this bookstore (aka that warm fuzzy feeling) when I was little and my grandparents used to live in the neighborhood– you can bet your bottom dollar they are members of the frequent buyers’ club. I love the giant Peef The Christmas Bear snuggled in the corner in the children’s books area.
I also love that Micawber’s reminds me/​looks like the book store in Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter’s movies — at least from the outside!
I usually avoid book stores as much as possible during the school year, let alone finals, but this bookstore has a soft place in my heart! It’s a cute little book store that’s great for finding a new adult and or children’s read! Plus my grandma is a member of the frequent buyers’ club, so I got an extra 20% off of Tina Fey’s — Bossypants!
Support your local bookstores, especially this one!

We stopped in here after lunch at Muffuletta’s. I love bookstores and try to stop into independent bookstores and show my support (make a purchase) whenever I can.
This store is clean and well organized. A nice selection of fiction and the regional interest section was very nice as well. This store was really easy to walk around in and was enjoyable to browse.
Sadly the service we received in here was sub-​par. I smiled and said hello to the clerk behind the counter when we walked in and got a grunt back. When I brought my purchase to the register I was asked if I was a member of their frequent shoppers club. I said «No — This is our first time here.» and was just stared at. No information about the club. No nothing. Just a flat uncomfortable look. She then rang me up. I handed over cash (knowing that most small businesses prefer cash as they get charged for credit card transactions.) and she sighed at me (not kidding) and made change. (And no — I didn’t drop a large bill on her — I got as close as I could to exact change.) She asked if I wanted a bag and I said no thanks I can just put it in my purse and made a show of putting it in my purse so she could see inside my bag thinking maybe she was thinking my big purse was walking out the store with her inventory? No «Thanks for stopping in». No «hope you found what you were looking for». No positive interaction at all. It was awkward and uncomfortable.
I hate to be «that girl» — the one who dumps on a little bookstore and complains about one bad experience. But … I am. The store itself was charming — the service left me walking out of the store feeling like I did something wrong by going in to this shop and making a purchase. Maybe the sales person was sick? Maybe they just had a really bad morning? Not sure what was going on — but I can’t see myself going back here and that is just sad. I hate seeing these cute little shops go down — but this was my experience here. Hopefully I am am an anomaly and other people will continue to have 5-​star shopping adventures here.

Love this bookstore, it keeps getting better and better. One aspect that I have enjoyed for a long time, is the frequent buyers club. First of all, it’s free, as opposed to Barnes and Noble where you have to pay a few to save some dough. So, at Micawber’s you save 10% automatically on full price books, but once you buy 20 books you receive back 10% more of what you previously purchased. You have to love that.
It’s small, it’s cozy. It’s a super place to browse and find at least a 100 different books you’d like to read.

Who in the world thought up St. Anthony Park? Is that little corner just the cutest, or what? Love this bookstore. Hardly ever buy books, but when I do, I always get them here. It’s small, quaint, and has a little of the Beauty and the Beast bookstore feel. Remember that bookstore Belle used to go to?
Anyway…they have incredibly good books that have been carefully selected. Anything I can’t get right away, I can wait a couple days for them to get it in-​then I get to come out here again-​have another cuppa at Finnish Bistro, buy some wine at the wine shop, and just be happy I’m not at Wal-​Mart and Barnes and Noble. Wouldn’t it be great if bookstores like this were packed, and the big box stores were going out of business?
BTW-​My husband found out that the owner we spoke with used to own (at least part of) Hungry Mind books on Grand Avenue… totally makes sense. ALSO, I registered my book club and they give us a 20% off discount. That is service!

This is such a cool place. Their kid’s section is so nice and inviting; they also have quite a good selection for such a small space.
The interior is just really gorgeous and the staff knows their stuff. They have staff recommendations up by their favorite books too, so it’s nice to know their reader-​personalities.
I also liked their selection of bargain books; they had some stuff I hadn’t seen elsewhere so I’m super glad I happened on in here when I went to Lady Elegant’s. Worth a stop for sure!
Also, shopping here is good for local business! Keep your independent bookstores alive!

I finally made it over here the other day and my only regret is that I hadn’t taken the effort to find it sooner. I was nearby and it’s been on my ‘to check out list’ for a while so I decided to stop in. It has a nice neighborhood feel and the people working there were personable, friendly, and clearly care a lot about what they do. An order had come in wrong and they were having a long discussion about how to get things fixed asap because they knew certain folks needed the book for a book club. The selection was excellent and well laid out. Wasn’t looking to buy much but I had a couple of random books in the back of my head and they had them both — Bird by Bird (a book about writing) and a book on neuroplasticity! I wanted to buy more based on some of the personalized recommendations they had around the store but I’m trying to be good right now and I’m not even halfway through my to read pile. They’ve inspired me to read more though so I can go back and buy more books :)
Oh, and they have a table of reduced price books on clearance and if you join their ‘frequent buyer’ program (by, um, giving them your email) you get 10% off everything!

This is what all book stores should be about. Small and cozy and an amazing selection of interesting and fascinating books for all ages. I love that they have little reviews next to the books the owners love. They must be rich because I can not walk in there without buying a great book. The last book I bought there was «The World Without Us» by Alan Weisman very interesting book. We try to buy books as gifts for our friends and family, books are great gifts at a reasonable price and supports local book stores at the same time. It is a little hard to find and my wife and I just found it by eating at a restaurant around the corner at Muffuletta’s
Walk around the neighborhood after the architecture is great.

Keep this store alive!
How many times have I used the word love in my reviews?
Too many. Sorry for that, but this is a great bookstore.
If I ever moved away from the twin cities, I would make a point to visit this store when I returned. I would come here before I saw my mother.
I would tell the cabbie to take me directly to Micawbers, I would buy many books, then sup at Muffaletta next door. Then I would go see my mom and tell her I need no longer fear death, as I have seen heaven on earth. Ok. I feel better now.