Independent Bookstore: Magus Books

In January I had a chance to visit another one of Seattle’s long-running independent bookstores, Magus Books in the University District, just a block off of the UW campus.

Magus Books

Magus Books has been buying and selling used books in the U-District since 1978, but the first time I visited them was in 1992, when I explored the Ave as a college freshman (at a different school). Together with Cellophane Square (RIP), I discovered Magus. In those days, I thought of it as a quintessential old bookstore with lots of rare finds, but prices that seemed a little out of my budget. (Back then, I never paid more than $3 for a used book that wasn’t required for class.) I didn’t spend a lot of time in the U-District back then, and by the time I got to UW as a lab tech and then a grad student, Magus had kind of dropped off my radar.

Revisiting a Classic

But unlike many of the stores I discovered through the Bookstore Day event, I did have some history with Magus. And eventually, I remembered it and wondered, “Hey, Magus is independent and it’s not on the Independent Bookstore Day map. Have I been missing out on other bookstores?” Magus wasn’t the first nonparticipating bookstore I visited, but it was the one that sparked the idea to seek out more bookstores.

In January I had tickets to a play in the U District, so I headed over early and browsed the bookstore. It was both the same and different from my memory.

Classic Bookstore

Unlike the airy and spacious Mercer Books, another old-school Seattle bookshop, Magus does have towering shelves that loom almost ominously, overstuffed with a profusion of second-hand treasures. Looking at the section labels (made with marker on cardboard) it was immediately obvious that this is a university-adjacent bookstore. Although huge, the fiction section is tucked in the back of the store, behind the nonfiction. The nonfiction topic areas are decidedly academic. Rather than “Classics” there are separate sections for Greek and Roman and Chinese classics. When I searched the latter section, I discovered that the books were only loosely organized within their section. As I searched, I was frequently distracted by intriguing and highly specialized backlist books I’d never heard of before. I decided that this was definitely a browsing bookstore, designed for serendipitous discovery rather than intentional collecting.

Rare Books

Then I found two fairly obscure books off my TBR list. The Chinese classic I was seeking was right there where it was supposed to be, although it was an edition with an unusual translation of the title. I had been searching for “Journey to the West,” but after scanning the table of contents, I felt confident that “Monkey” was in fact the same book in its entirety. In the fiction section, I found “The Dollmaker” by Harriette Simpson Arnow. The 1954 novel appeared on a King County Library list of classics and had sat on my shopping list for years. It turns out that Magus is actually a very good place to find “that special rare book.” (And for those who want the books without the browsing, you can search their inventory online and let the bookseller find it on the shelves for you.)

Prices

Any bookstore that carries rare books is going to have some pricey ones. The folks in front of me in line spent more than $100 and it looked like they only had 3 books. But I walked out only $16 poorer for my two-book purchase. Even a few years ago, an $8 used book would have seemed expensive to me. But I’ve been going to a lot of bookstores since then, and that price seems pretty typical these days. Back in the day, a used book and a latte cost similar amounts. Today that still seems to be true.

Magus felt like a win on all counts – atmosphere, selection, and prices. Maybe in the future, I’ll be less cranky about giving my daughter rides to and from UW. It would be the perfect excuse to stop in at the bookstore. Or maybe I won’t. Magus is the kind of bookstore you could spend a whole morning in. It might be better if I drop in at the bookshop on days when no one is expecting me anywhere else.