Keillor opens bookstore at Macalester

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Garrison Keillor's Common Good Books is relocating to Macalester College.

The independent bookstore will move to the Macalester-owned Lampert Building, just north of the Breadsmith at Snelling and Grand. Common Good Books is currently located in the Cathedral Hill area, underneath Nina's Coffee Cafe at the corner of Selby and Western. Common Good Books' David O'Neill says the new location is street level and about 3,000 square feet - compared to the current store of 1,800 square feet.

Macalester has been without a trade bookstore since July of 2004, when Ruminator Books, which opened in 1970 as the Hungry Mind Bookstore, went out of business. In a press release, Keillor praised the Macalester hood:

"We'll be just behind my favorite bakery and around the corner from a terrific cheese shop and a few blocks east of the old Hungry Mind, where I used to buy all my books," said Keillor. "And Wet Paint, where I buy pens and paper. And around the corner from St. Paul's on the Hill, a good Anglo-Catholic church. It's a good neighborhood, and with all those college students around, there's a sense of high spirits in the air, and you need to inhale that if you're in the book business."

The new store is scheduled to open in April, after some renovations, and David O'Neill says several options are being discussed for the current space at Selby and Western. He's quick to point out that the current store will remain open until the new store is ready.

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