August McGinnity-Wake takes a page from Paul’s Books

By Amie Hoag, Eastside News

Under the low ceilings of a typical east side basement, just a few blocks from Goodman Community Center, a piece of Madison’s legendary Paul’s Books lives on, thanks to August McGinnity-Wake.

When Paul’s Books owner, Caryl Askins, announced her plans to retire and close the store after 70 years in business, many throughout the Madison community felt the loss, including Union Corners resident McGinnity- Wake. But in McGinnity-Wake’s case, he turned the sadness into opportunity, working with Askins’ daughter Martha to negotiate and purchase a portion of the store’s collection.

“I’ve loved Paul’s for years,” he explained. “And I’ve always been interested in bookselling, but acquiring inventory was always a barrier.”

McGinnity-Wake had an Instagram account where he posted about books he was reading or interested in, and through that, he’d been selling a few books here and there — all rare-ish volumes that were hard to find.

Now, after years of sporadic selling, McGinnity-Wake finally has an impressive inventory. He operates Augie’s Books through in-person browsing and online sales on his Instagram account and eBay with the hopes of making it easier for folks to find obscure volumes, and maybe discover titles they never knew existed.

McGinnity-Wake purchased the complete literary criticism and hardcover fiction collections from Paul’s Books, totaling about 2,000 books — and Paul’s threw in the original hand-written signs, as well as some bookshelves. In recent months, McGinnity-Wake has worked with a couple of local families to acquire books from personal collections as well, bringing his total collection to about 2,500 books, all neatly arranged in his cozy basement.

“We have a lot of cool books in this town,” McGinnity-Wake said. “Paul’s had no online presence, so some of these titles haven’t been seen online — ever.”

McGinnity-Wake has sold about 200 books since starting Augie’s books, primarily through his online presence, and he’d really like to sell more to the local community. He offers free local pickup, and in one sale, he learned that some of his customers are hyper-local — right across the street.

“I sold a book to my neighbor,” McGinnity-Wake said, laughing. “Neither of us realized we lived so close.”

McGinnity-Wake hopes to open a storefront someday and plans to rename his store Cellar Door Books in 2026. But for now, those interested in browsing his collection can email him at a.mcwake@gmail.com to set up an appointment. He also has a full, detailed list of his catalog linked from his Instagram account, @augiesbooks.