Lighting the spark

Maria’s Bookshop celebrates 30 years of connecting with readers

It’s the shared experience, the spark that lights up behind their eyes. That’s how she knows it’s the right suggestion, the one that will inspire and stay with them.

“It’s that spark when you talk to someone about books,” explained Andrea Avantaggio, co-owner of Maria’s Bookshop. “That’s how I know that’s the book. I love that.”

Her vision for Maria’s is to keep that spark alive. 

For Avantaggio and Peter Schertz, co-owner of Maria’s Bookshop, it all began 30 years ago just a few doors down the street. 

At the time, Dusty Teal owned Maria’s. He wasn’t the first owner. Nor the last. However, he did give Maria’s her name. 

It didn’t come from a spouse or relative. It wasn’t inspired by an employee or even favorite character. The bookshop got its name from a legendary potter, Maria Martinez, of San Ildefonso, N.M., whose work featured the bird logo the shop still uses today. 

After 14 years at the helm, Maria’s was no longer the same store Teal had envisioned. That’s when opportunity knocked on Avantaggio’s and Schertz’s door. The husband and wife team opened the door, taking ownership in 1998. 

“The groundwork laid by Dusty Teal, Mary Anne Griffin (who managed the shop for more than a decade), and a talented group of booksellers over the years has resulted in a connection to the community that is unparalleled,” Schertz explained. “We have a responsibility to honor and maintain that connection.”

Avantaggio and Schertz plan to celebrate Maria’s 30th anniversary with special deals, offerings and refreshments from 9 a.m. - 9:30 p.m. Fri., Sept. 26, at 960 Main Ave. 

The web of electronic networks forged with smart phones, tablets, computers and TVs that permeate modern culture today were just beginning to find footing when Avantaggio began working as a bookseller at Maria’s in 1992. 

Since that time, e-readers found their share of the market, Amazon became a behemoth, and Twitter reduced human conversation to a mere 140 characters.

Through it all, Maria’s has thrived. This summer has been the strongest season in years. 

Avantaggio said visitors to Durango often come into the shop looking for real books. They associate having one with being on vacation. 

Holding the book, turning the pages, moving across the paragraphs. It allows the reader to relax and open up into the story. It takes the reader away from the world of technology and into the world of the characters. “I think that speaks to why we’re still alive and what electronic reading doesn’t do for people.”

Whether it’s reading on an electronic device or purchasing a book online, it’s a different interaction. People have their work, their home; but, they also tend to have another place, Avantaggio explained. A place where they have a group of people they connect with. 

As the bookshop, the community and the current owners change throughout the years, the day might come when Avantaggio and Schertz, just like Teal, find it’s no longer the right fit. That’s when they’ll look to make the exchange and find someone who can keep supplying the community with that spark.

Schertz sees it as a responsibility to support the community that supports them, and feels fortunate and honored
to make those decisions. 

Recently, a young Durango artist found the courage to come in to Maria’s and ask if she could hang her works on the walls. “It was just wonderful to say, ‘Yes.’”

Durango's downtown bookstore, Maria's Bookshop will celebrate 30 years of providing books to the community next week./Photo by Jennaye Derge

After more than two decades of memorable stories and multiple orders, Avantaggio said she couldn’t remember exactly which title could claim the distinction of being the first one she ordered for the shelves at Maria’s. But the likely honoree is a children’s book titled Miss Rumphius.

It’s the story of young girl named Alice Rumphius, who hopes to travel to faraway places when she grows up and live in a house beside the sea when she grows old, just like her grandfather. 

But there is a third thing that she must do, her grandfather tells her. She must make the world more beautiful. Alice doesn’t know how she will do that. Not yet, anyway. 

The story follows her as she grows up, travels to faraway places and then settles down in a cottage by the sea. There she plants some flower seeds, lupines, which grow despite the rocky soil. 

When she falls ill the following summer, she can’t plant more seeds, but later finds a patch of lupines on a hill, carried from her garden by the wind. She’s inspired to purchases five bushels of lupine seeds, and all summer long scatters them about town. 

The following year, the town is filled with lupine flowers. She found a way to make the world a more beautiful place.

The story finishes with Miss Rumphius sharing her story with her niece, telling her that she, too, must find a way to make the world a more beautiful place. 

That’s what the 30-year celebration is all about, a chance to say thank you to the community for making Maria’s what it is. 

“I like to think we’re making a difference in the world,” Schertz said.

And, perhaps looking to make the world a more beautiful place. Just like Miss Rumphius.