
By Jim Studer
“When I get a little money, I buy books, and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes,” stated Erasmus, Dutch priest and thinker of the 1500s. Books, Maple Lake still has a place where books can be purchased: that is until December 30th, when the doors of Marilyn Groth’s Book Break closes its door. This will be a sad day.
I met Marilyn in 2016. She offered me a place to sell my books. Since then, she has moved from business partner to friend, kind, generous and supportive. This mild-mannered woman has become an important part of my life. I will miss her support and the opportunity to sit in front of her store to greet, visit, and sometimes sell a book to citizens of Maple Lake or greater Wright County. I even got to meet a few people from outside Minnesota.
Marilyn has been an important supporter of Central Minnesota’s authors. Over the years she has had more than 30 local authors in her store for book signings and sales. Independent bookstores are a salvation for new authors who without agents can’t gain access to national publishers. National publishers are not interested in books that won’t become million sellers.
Marilyn and her kind are saints in the industry. Independent bookstores often don’t show much of a profit. Used bookstores such as Book Break have a hard time taking in much more than is needed to pay the bills. They do what they do for the love of books and for those who love to read and write them.
The loss of Book Break to the community is great. Many times I sat at a table near the front door and saw parents and grandparents leave with children in tow; the children toting a bag of books. These youngsters then owned their own books, books that would be read to them over and over, books that they will read over and over, books they eventually pass on to their kids and grandkids. This is a necessary part of having a literate society. Where but at a used bookstore can the young, the middle aged and even elderly adults find such treasures at low prices? Marilyn has maintained the Book Break almost totally by herself to make all of this possible.
She has a love of books that may have begun, as she said, by reading The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein. She said they implanted a desire to go to Switzerland and to see Heidi’s home.
Author Virginia Woolf wrote, “Books are the mirror of the soul.” If you wish to get a good look at the soul of Marilyn Groth, step into the Book Break and help her clear the shelves so she won’t have so many books to carry back to her basement. I hope she takes in enough money to take that trip to Switzerland and trek in Heidi’s footsteps.
As Sir Richard Steele, 17th century British essayist said, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Visit Maple Lake’s fitness center of the mind before we say goodbye to it.
Thank you, Marilyn.