‘New’ owner for Dear ‘Old’ Books

Since her teenage years, Amy Anderson Butterfield, a Sheboygan native and manager of Dear Old Books, 404 E. Mill St., Plymouth, has dreamed of owning a bookstore.

She said that running the store is the next best thing. Her mother Lois Nyhuis bought the business from Heather Ross, Anderson’s friend, on Oct. 31, 2008, and Anderson took the helm the following day.

Despite the fact that the past year has entailed a great deal of learning for Anderson, she didn’t let that interfere with her passion.

“I had always thought that running a bookstore would be a dream job, and I have found this to be true,” she said.

Anderson is further rewarded by the fact that Dear Old Books is becoming a four-generation endeavor for her family. Her mother, who possesses an artistic flair, is acclaimed for her handsome window displays at the store.

“My mother is also a wonderful hostess and did a fabulous job at our grand opening last December,” Anderson noted, adding that a special anniversary event at Dear Old Books, slated for early November, is in the planning stages.

One of Anderson’s goals at the store is to sponsor a reading club for older children.

“They would write a short report about a book they read and get a point for it,” she explained. “When they have earned a certain number of points, they would receive credit to purchase a book.”

For the third generation of her family, Anderson’s daughter Heidi worked in the store part-time with the former owner and assists her mother with questions regarding the store’s online sales.

Heidi is currently away at college. But Anderson said she hopes Heidi will one day work for the store full-time.

“She is wonderful with children,” Anderson said.

She hopes either Heidi or her daughter-in-law Angela Anderson will eventually host a children’s story hour. Anderson’s granddaughters – Frankie, 7, and Charlie, 3 – would enjoy that, she said.

Frankie is already part of the business, being in charge of arranging the teddy bears displayed in the store entrance.

Upon entering the store, customers observe and remark about the signature piece antique cabinet, containing some of the store’s rare books.

“A few customers wanted to buy the cabinet, but it adds to the store’s ambiance,” Anderson said.

The spacious store currently has an inventory of about 20,000 gently used books.

“There are also between 10,000 to 15,000 books in the basement, waiting to be processed,” Anderson noted.

She was married on Aug. 1 to Tim Butterfield, who served with the U.S. Navy for 20 years on a submarine.

“He is retired from the Navy and spends many hours, helping out in the basement,” Anderson said. “Since he spent all those years on a submarine, he doesn’t mind working down there.”

Children’s and parent self-help books comprise the first room of the bookstore, with shelves throughout the entire store neatly categorized. Another room contains fiction books, and a third one, non-fiction and classic literature. History books make up the largest selection in the store.

Another facet of the business is online sales of rare and valuable books, about 2,000 of those currently featured. For example, vintage copies of author Charles Dickens’ “Pickwick Papers.”

“I have to update the online inventory daily,” Anderson noted. “Only rare and valuable books are in the database.

“My daughter Heidi taught me about this facet of the business,” she said.

A unique feature of Dear Old Books is its special-order service. “If a customer wants a book, I will do my best to get it for him or her,” Anderson said. “This is a big part of the business.

“Finding rare treasures for customers is special to me,” she pointed out, then provided an example.

“One customer wanted a copy of a book titled “A Merry Briton in Pioneer Wisconsin,” Anderson recalled.

“It is a journal of a Brit in the early 1800s. Libraries discontinued carrying it. But I found one for the customer.”

Dear Old Books also offers a store-credit policy.

“Customers bring in their good-condition books, and they receive 25 percent of the price that we expect to sell the books for, as store credit,” Anderson noted.

For two years prior to managing Dear Old Books, she ran an online business, selling Lego sets and individual pieces.

“I am working on incorporating that into the store,” Anderson said.

Her educational background and employment history are the perfect blend for Anderson’s current occupation. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Lakeland College in English and philosophy in 1997.

From 2001-07, while studying at Marquette University, Anderson was a teaching assistant. She taught freshman English. In 2002, she earned her Master of Arts degree in English.

She then spent another four years completing the coursework for her Ph. D. degree. However, she was unable to complete her dissertation at that time, as her father the late Wayne Nyhuis became ill, so she left school to help care for him and started her online business at that time.

Anderson noted that Heather Ross, the former Dear Old Books owner, attended her father’s funeral last year. “Heather mentioned that she had put the store up for sale,” Anderson said.

Anderson and her mother discussed the idea of buying the store and decided it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“We don’t expect to make a lot of money,” Anderson said. “We are doing this, because we love books.” Note: For further information, phone 892-4447.