An Auburn woman hopes an appreciation for the community will make her bookstore a success.
AUBURN – Laurie Haynes St. Pierre loves reading because it takes you places you might never have gone. In her case, it’s brought her to 1 Great Falls Plaza where she just opened a bookstore.
St. Pierre opened Book Burrow & Cafe in late May to fulfill a dream she’s been nurturing for more than a decade. A teacher by training, she wanted to share her love of reading with a wide audience and infuse some enthusiasm for the written word in a world often dominated by electronics.
“Reading engages you, it makes you think,” she said. “It’s a very active activity.”
St. Pierre talks about her enthusiasm for her business from the lounge area of the bookstore where several small tables and chairs are scattered about and two easy chairs face each other to encourage conversation. The plum-colored walls and warm wood of the bookshelves are relaxing, as is the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee. The cafe provides gourmet coffee and light fare such as sandwiches, soups and baked goods. The idea is to encourage lounging – preferably with a good book.
“People come in for a cup of a coffee and by the third time, they often buy that book they’ve been eyeing,” she said.
With more than 3,000 titles, there’s plenty to browse. The store carries a selection of fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, specialty subjects (it’s the section of the store that St. Pierre says mirrors her own home library) as well as greeting cards, newspapers and magazines. She’s happy to order titles for her customers and tries to tailor the inventory to reflect the community. One customer is an archaeology and Egypt buff; she’s ordered several books she thinks will appeal to his interests. She did the same for a 10-year-old customer who is nearly at the end of one series of children’s books and eager for another.
“I want this to be a community bookstore, for the community to own it, not us,” she said. Her connection to the community is what makes her operation unique and unlike other bookstores, she said.
To get an insider’s view of bookselling, she did some research and eventually landed a job as a manager at a national chain.
“I discovered I loved selling books, but hated working in a mall and for a chain that controlled everything,” she said. The point was driven home when the chain store said it couldn’t carry a book about Lewiston’s bicentennial written by local historian Douglas Hodgkin.
“It was really upsetting to me that I couldn’t sell a local author,” she said.
Now she has all kinds of freedom. She has already had three book signings with Maine authors and has weather icon Martin Engstrom lined up for a signing on July 23. Engstrom’s book “Marty on the Mountain” talks about his 38 years atop Mount Washington as an engineer. His weather dispatches were carried on local television stations for years, and always ended with Marty grinning at the camera. St. Pierre said Book Burrow is the first bookstore to carry his book.
A former elementary school teacher, St. Pierre extends her commitment to the community to literacy. She holds free writing workshops for children at the bookstore twice a week just to encourage creative writing. She hopes this fall an alliance with local artist Linda Leonas Legare will allow children to both write and illustrate their own works. Plans also include selling used books to benefit the Auburn Public Library and Literacy Volunteers of America, and hosting a book club.
But for the moment, she’s concentrating on getting the word out and getting the customers in. About 40,000 cars pass her location on the corner of Turner and Court streets but the trees obscure the view of her business.
She loves the location, though. She hadn’t thought of a downtown address until talking to city officials who encouraged her in that direction. Initially she wanted to lease space where Austin’s is expanding on Main Street but only 1,000 square feet was going to be available. Her current location gives her more than 2,000 square feet and is in the line of traffic going into Great Falls Plaza and the soon-to-be-open Hilton hotel. It’s also an easy walk for downtown folks who may not have transportation otherwise.
“Now I realize it’s a perfect fit.”
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