“The most eclectic bookstore in southwest Wisconsin”
Just past the Wisconsin River settled in one of the crests of the Driftless area hides the small town of Viroqua. Along main street, visitors can find small local shops which each exhibit their own sense of rural charm including Gary’s Rock Shop and the Ewetopia Fiber Shop. The Driftless Café is a favorite among the locals as the perfect family oriented environment to grab a bite to eat.
However, if you stray from the main drag you might run into what appears to be the old, abandoned industrial side of this rural Wisconsin town. Among the vintage style buildings rests three old, brick tobacco factories.
One of these factories (which has been lovingly renamed “The Forgotten Works” factory) hosts an eclectic used bookstore known as Driftless Books and Music. This brain-child of owner Eddy Nix invites visitors in with an engraved stone that hangs above the door. It reads “This is the entrance to the forgotten works. Be careful. You might get lost”.
Storeowner Eddy Nix grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, just up the road from Viroqua. After graduation, he had the itch to travel and get out of town. So, he took the opportunity to travel to South Africa with a Rotary International program. In his own words, his experience “…was fascinating” (Nix, 2016). After the program, Eddy spent the next era of his life exploring Europe, South America, and “…places like that” (Nix, 2016). In the mid-‘90s, this world traveler had started to miss his home here in Wisconsin. He explains that all of his travels made him realize and appreciate the uniqueness and beauty that can only be found here in the Driftless region.
He began this new chapter in his life by opening a used bookstore in Viola, Wisconsin inside an old post office building. After a hail-Mary eBay search where he typed in “bunch of books,” Eddy came across an auction that was listed in the wrong category, simply titled “50,000 books.” He drove out to Connecticut and spent three months sorting through and packing up two semi-trucks full of books that were otherwise going to be thrown in the dump. When Eddy returned to Wisconsin. he began the process of unpacking and organizing.
He said “It literally took four or five years. It was like a giant Tetris game” (Nix, 2016). However, after flooding and tornadoes, Eddy knew he had to start looking for a new home for all his books.
The perfect opportunity seemed to fall into this store owner’s lap. A local philanthropist, who was also a regular in the store, was in possession of an old tobacco warehouse that was not in use. In an article published by the Minnesota Skinny, Eddy explains that “This guy saw what we were doing. He gave it to me as a challenge to make this thing real” (Haataja, 2018). He believed in Eddy’s vision and pushed him to make it a reality. This was a true case of things just falling into place.
When I visited the store this fall, I asked Eddy if he ever had a moment of “What did I get myself into?” to which he replied, “Plenty”. He said that he had a lot of questioning moments throughout his journey. Specifically, moving his business into the old tobacco warehouse became a thing of his nightmares. The building itself was old and challenging. The steam heating system was broken and did not function the way Eddy needed it to. He soon realized that he would go broke during the brutal Wisconsin winters just trying to keep the building comfortable.
So, Eddy improvised.
For the three coldest months, he closes the shop and gives himself a much-needed vacation while also giving himself some time to take books home to organize and catalog. Eddy explained that he has found through his experience that “What seems like a crisis can actually be an invitation”. He said that these moments gave him time to step back and reevaluate the situation before moving forward.
I remember how, on my first visit to this unique place, I stepped underneath the engraved stone warning at the entrance and was instantly overwhelmed with a sense of nostalgia. The entrance hall is lined with bins of music records which all reminded me of an old shop in my hometown that my friends and I frequented in high school. But I wasn’t even in the bookstore yet. As I passed through a second door I felt that wave of past memories pull me down further. In front of me was a room, packed floor to ceiling with books. Hundreds of books. And in the middle of the room, a couch and table for guests to find a good read, take a seat, and become lost. From behind a stack of books a friendly face appeared and greeted me.
Eddy Nix makes time to stop and welcome all who come to The Forgotten Works with a happy “Hello” and a friendly smile. Whether he is working on sorting through donated books, organizing and placing more titles out on the floor, or busy packaging up pieces ever so gently in recycled brown paper bags to be shipped to customers from his online business, he is never too busy to offer his assistance. When I returned to Driftless Books and Music, I watched as two ladies wandered in to be met with the same upbeat greeting that I had.
One of the ladies happened to be holding what looked like a grocery list of books written on a folded post-it. The two women told us that they were just looking around, but more specifically were interested in checking out the romance novels. One of them mentioned a specific author which Eddy thought over for a minute before directing them to the romance section and saying that he thought he might have some, if not by that author, a few that were similar in the basement. He proceeded to the lowest level which housed just as many books as the main level and effortlessly found the shelf he was looking for. I watched with a sense of awe as he scooped up the books. In a building that holds over half a million books, it takes some crazy organization and memory to remember where certain titles are resting.
If you move further into the brick structure, you will pass through yet another doorway into an even larger room with, you guessed it, more books. If you don’t get lost among the tree covered hills and valleys of the Driftless area, you will get lost in the maze of bookshelves at this hidden gem.
I perused the shelves, unsure exactly what I was looking for, until I finally settled for the “self-help” section. The bookshelves were arranged to form small cubby areas with seating for visitors to use while looking for the perfect match. I started with the top shelf and skimmed for interesting titles. My hand worked its way across all of the bindings until I found myself sitting crisscross applesauce on the wooden floor.
I opened the cover of the first book that I had pulled out and set aside and felt myself going back in time. Back to the moment when I was much smaller and felt myself fall out of love with reading. My mom had brought me to a small used bookstore in Bismarck, North Dakota. By the time we left, I had a stack of new-old novels and a new spark for reading.
When I sat down to talk with Eddy about the bookstore and his journey, I could feel a real sense of love and appreciation for the store and all of the visitors who stopped by. He told me that he enjoys visiting and listening to the guests who just come to visit the old building because of its tobacco history. He explained that almost every week a guest comes with their family and a story about how their grandfather or other family worked in the building or were one of the farmers who would drop off their tobacco crop at the side door which is now kept open to help with circulation.
Eddy explained to me that the tobacco industry brought families together to work with one another which is something that is just not as common nowadays. I really could feel a sense of pride from Eddy that he gets to hear and be a part of those stories. I could tell that he appreciates that history and enjoys helping it to continue to live on.
Another visitor entered the store with two boxes of books that he wanted to donate. They were his grandmother’s who had recently been moved into the nursing home. After the visitor left, Eddy sat down on one of the couches to start sorting through the new treasure. The first book he pulled out, no joke, was titled Say No to Nursing Homes.
We laughed and continued on. He found an old high school textbook which he set aside and explained that he was going to donate to a local high school that was looking for textbooks to use as props in an upcoming play. As he was paging through another book from the pile he found a folded grocery store ad that appeared to have been used as a bookmark some time ago. “Biblioscat” he called it.
Eddy said he feels as though he is “tending to a part of a person” when he goes through donations like this. While going through donations he has found signatures of loved ones who have passed, among other treasures that mean a lot to families. In one case, Eddy sent a book to the family of the author who did not have a copy for themselves. He told me that going through each box feel like “fulfilling a mission. It’s like a treasure hunt.”
In addition to the sense of adventure, appreciation, and overall wonder, an underlying passion and message lays between the pages of this place. Every year, Eddy pointed out, “approximately 300 million books get thrown in landfills.”
Unwanted, these are used books that people just don’t know what to do with. These texts sit and take up even more space in our growing landfills. The way the printing industry is set up, books are published in mass production, way more than actually are purchased by individuals. Therefore, there is a surplus of books that bookstores often do not know what to do with and libraries do not have the capacity to take in. These books often simply get tossed out along with the other used books that individuals have read and don’t know what else to do with. Eddy explained that this is often an overlooked issue: if you think about it “some titles are going extinct as fast as species.”
Driftless Books and Music gives a home to these used books and functions as a place where people can save these titles for others to enjoy for years to come. Anyone can donate their used books to Eddy who will in exchange offer some in store credits or even sometimes cash.
This way, donors can then peruse the store in search of a new read. Unless the book has signs of mold, Eddy finds a place in the vast brick building to put the piece of work until it is rediscovered. In Eddy’s words, “Who am I to judge which books should be kept and which ones tossed?” He further explained that although a title might not be the kind of book that he would personally pick up for enjoyment, he finds it fascinating what each item in his store is worth to different people. Whether it be for the family history or just that they find that particular item meaningful.
A more recent goal of Eddy’s is to help expand used bookstore connections to help save the books from the landfill graveyard and to encourage younger people to pursue this as a career option. He hopes to start a co-op where used bookstores can network with each other and libraries to create a much-needed support system. Eddy hopes he can use technology for his benefit to help this network organize the titles they possess most effectively. He also hopes it will help readers find the title that they are looking for easier.
Eddy said that he has always seen bookstores as this type of cultural intersection. They provide a social area that brings communities together in a supportive and safe environment. He explained that he hopes that this place leaves his visitors with a sense of ontological questioning or a feeling that just makes them pause and really think and reflect. Whether visitors stop by in pursuit of a specific title, to browse the shelves, or to reminisce on the history of the location, this attraction is guaranteed to be a memorable stop. As I traveled home through the Driftless hills, I couldn’t help but feel like the world could use a few more repurposed tobacco warehouses and a few more Eddys to lead them.
To read more about Eddy’s story and Driftless Books and Music, check out the following articles and follow Driftless Books and Music on Facebook using the links below:
http://realsmalltowns.com/eddy-nix/
References:
Haataja, F. (2018, April 27). Chapter 5: Driftless Books and Music in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Retrieved September 25, 2019, from http://minnesotaskinny.com/2018/04/27/driftless-books-viroqua-wisconsin/.
Nix, E. (n.d.). “The guy who owned this old tobacco warehouse here in Viroqua, he just gave me the building. Just gave it to me.”. Retrieved September 25, 2019, from https://www.lovewi.com/eddy.