Located along busy 42nd Street in the middle of the University District sits a bibliophile's paradise. Magus Books is one of Seattle's oldest bookstores, and over the last half century has collected enough tomes to create a literal literary maze from floor to ceiling.

History
Hanna and Chris McElroy have owned the store for nearly half its existence, and have watched it flourish over the years.

"We've owned it for almost 19 years," Hanna said. "Magus has been here since 1978. It was our favorite bookstore, and the owner just decided it was time to retire. So we looked at the numbers and just decided to take the leap and bought it."

Buying Magus was the McElroys' official leap into the world of indie bookstores, but both had already been involved in the literary world.

"Chris was a book scout," Hanna said, "so somebody who goes to estate sales and Goodwill and stuff like that... He would buy books and then sell them to the various bookstores in town... I was in corporate merchandising, so I worked for Starbucks and Eddie Bauer and other companies. I knew how to sell things... and also my degrees are in philosophy and English, so I've read a lot of books. That's how we ended up here."

A hectic home — but a quieter one is on the way
While the typical Seattle bookstore is a quiet and relaxing place to read, explore, and have a conversation with friends, Magus is quite the opposite.

"It can be very hectic. A lot of people think of a used bookstore as really quiet and calm and people sitting around and reading — and this store is a bit more like a busy restaurant," Hanna said with a laugh.

"We are getting ready to open up another location in Wallingford in October, and that is going to be much more of a little quiet bookstore, but this is pretty hectic. There's lots of people in and out, it's pretty high volume, and the books change constantly."

The high foot traffic is to be expected, as Magus is not only one of the oldest but also one of the largest used bookstores in Seattle.

"At this point we are the largest all-used bookstore. We do have so much history, going on 50 years. Because of our size and our ability to really fill the store... we have 80,000 unique titles," Hanna said.

"I don't know if there are any other stores in town [that] can really do that. We are super picky in what we buy in terms of condition, and... we really like to curate ...in terms of buying books that we feel are really important or good, and we don't really cater too much to the... grocery store fiction sort of thing, although we do have some."

All used all the time
Most of Magus's revenue comes from locals who sell books back to the store on Mondays and Tuesdays.

"Occasionally we'll do remainders, when bookstores return new books to the publisher, then the publisher sells them to other distributors at a discount, and so sometimes we will buy if something comes up, but yeah, it's 100% used," Hanna explained.

Because the store buys all its books secondhand, there is a wide variety of titles that line the shelves. The small LGBTQ+ section is one of the most popular.

"We do have an LGBTQ+ section, actually. It's not very big, and the reason why is because that category is very popular, so the books come in and [go] out very quickly," Hanna said. "Also, [those] in that section have to really specifically be about LGBTQ people... more from a sociological perspective or historical perspective. It isn't like we would put all the LGBTQ+ writers in that section; they go with everybody else. Oscar Wilde is in literature, Audre Lorde is in poetry, Samuel Delany is in sci-fi, just like they're supposed to be."

Magus gives back
The store sees so many new titles each week that it often cannot keep up with all the new ones coming through. Because they have such high standards for the titles they sell, the McElroys usually end up donating many back to the community.

"We donate hundreds of books every week to Goodwill and to other organizations, so in terms of that, I think we try to give back with books. We don't really have a dedicated space for readings or that sort of stuff, but at the new store, we probably will have some of those events, again, because it's quieter," Hanna said.

For anyone looking to explore some of Seattle's history, hoping to find a new title at a low price, or learn a little more about philosophy, Magus Books is a must-see.

Magus Books is located at 1408 NE 42nd St. or online at https://www.magusbooksseattle.com.