Mattapoisett store opening marks sole bookstore in Tri-Town
The Tri-Town did not have an operating bookstore until The Book Witch opened April 6. Photos by Erez Ben-Akiva
Nearly all of the books sold by The Book Witch are written by female authors, according to owner Amélie de Beaumont-Mabee.
The Tri-Town did not have an operating bookstore until The Book Witch opened April 6. Photos by Erez Ben-Akiva
Nearly all of the books sold by The Book Witch are written by female authors, according to owner Amélie de Beaumont-Mabee.
MATTAPOISETT — The first job Amélie de Beaumont-Mabee ever wanted was to be a librarian. As a kid who loved books, she thought librarians simply read all day.
Beaumont-Mabee also had a dream to one day be “an old lady in a bookstore,” she said. She decided, however, against waiting that long to fulfill her goal.
Beaumont-Mabee opened The Book Witch inside Mattapoisett’s Ropewalk Mall on the weekend of April 6. The independent bookstore is one of its kind within the Tri-Town area. It is the only bookstore in Mattapoisett, Marion and Rochester.
For Beaumont-Mabee, reading — and the different perspectives, experiences and histories it brings — helps her to better understand the world. Where there’s less access to books and reading in an area, there’s a gap.
“I think that area suffers from not having the perspectives of as many people as there are in the world,” Beaumont-Mabee said. “I think it just helps the whole community be better in general.”
Nearly all of the books sold by The Book Witch are written by female authors spanning several genres, according to Beaumont-Mabee. She herself has been writing a book on and off about witches, partly explaining the shop’s name.
Also inspiring the “Book Witch” as a moniker for Beaumont-Mabee’s store is her belief that books — as they transport readers to different worlds — are like magic.
“If I’m selling magic to people, then I guess that makes me the book witch,” she said.
Ropewalk Mall owner Michael Sudofsky said he’s seen Beaumont-Mabee “busy on the weekends.”
“It's really nice to see young entrepreneurs really just kind of focused on the whole concept of village,” he said.
Beaumont-Mabee said she loves nothing more than to recommend books. One of her first realizations that she’d like to open a book store stemmed from friends asking her to recommend books to them.
Already, a few customers have walked into The Book Witch and asked the same.
“I love helping them find something that’s going to just be something they want to talk to their friends about and that stays on their mind,” Beaumont-Mabee. “That really makes it worth it at the end of the day.”
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