Mike Donovan was on all fours, examining a book called “Voices of Convergence,” by Daniel Leary. It was an old hardcover, its title printed in a playful 1960s psychedelia font. It was a rainy Monday morning, and he was on the living room floor of a perfect stranger.
James Ryan had invited Donovan into his State Street home to help him shed some book weight, as he prepared to move across the river to Coxsackie. Donovan placed “Voices of Convergence,” on top of a slowly growing tower of books — this was the stack he was taking with him.
Donovan loves old books so much he named a store after them. Old Books, at 610 Warren Street, opened in September 2024. About twice a month, Donovan will go out on book-hauls to people’s houses, libraries, storage units, and garage sales around Hudson, Columbia County, and beyond, purchasing dozens of boxes of books, soon to fill the gaps on the shelves at the store.
The narrow Warren Street space is neatly organized, uncluttered, and airy. But achieving such a well-curated space comes with an element of chaos, as he visits individuals in a state of transition, whether from moving, downsizing, or stumped at what to do with books left behind from a loved one’s death.
“You’re shepherding books through time,” said Donovan, examining “Coming of Age” by Studs Terkel, before placing it in the take pile, growing precariously tall in Ryan’s living room. “Books are passing through centuries, but people aren’t passing through centuries.” Many people come into the store to inquire about Donovan’s book-buying — older men and women are a common demographic. “A lot of times you’re dealing with a widow or widower,” said Donovan. “When they’re five paces in [the store], I know exactly what they’re going to say.” His close contact with those who are moving through the death of a loved one turns Donovan’s job into part book-buyer, part estate-manager, part death doula, with ample opportunity to reflect on the passage of time as he sifts through the literature accumulated over long lives. “People are born and people are dying, but the book is still going,” he said.
“I love science fiction,” said Ryan, surrounded by hundreds of his books spread across the jute rug of his living room, a sort of self portrait in paperbacks. “Notice there’s no science fiction here, they’re all coming with me.” The books Ryan was getting rid of, which included authors such as Slavoj Zizek, Sartre, Andre Breton, Foucault, Eldridge Cleaver, CK Williams, and curious coffee table books such as “The Ancient Science of Geomancy,” and “Sundials: A History of Theory and Practice,” for Ryan, had served their purpose in his life. “I have absorbed what they have to tell me,” he said.
“[A bookseller] will have to get like 30,000 books, and then they can open a bookstore,” said Donovan. “They’ll collect books for years, but [at first] they’re not selling them.” Luckily for Donovan, his startup book injection came from a neighbor, Dan Seward of John Doe Records. Seward had roughly 50,000 books, amassed from donations and buybacks over nearly 30 years, from when his store was Hudson’s de-facto bookshop.
Donovan is also a musician, best known for one half of the duo Sic Alps, as well as other bands such as The Peacers. Donovan had met Seward at a gig in Chicago in 2011. When Donovan moved to Hudson in 2019, Seward and Donovan crossed paths again, and it was Seward who encouraged Donovan to open a bookstore in town, offering his collection as inventory, and sharing the sales. “If Dan hadn’t given me the idea, I probably would never have done it,” said Donovan. There were other key book suppliers throughout Old Books’ early life such as David Palmquist, who donated a storage unit containing roughly 30,000 books to Donovan, on the condition that he take over the lease of the storage space. Another was art critic Robert C. Morgan. When he died in 2024, it was Donovan who managed his book collection. If you see an obscure art book on the shelves of Old Books, it’s most likely thanks to Morgan.
When on the hunt for books, Donovan takes a few things into consideration. “The cover, the content, and the cultural moment,” said Donovan, who has developed a sixth sense for detecting what will sell quickly, and what will gather dust on the shelves. He’ll go to library clearouts — but only at the end — to see which books have been passed over, giving him a sense of what’s hot in the used book scene. Sometimes he’ll go against the grain. He recalled encountering a book about barn building at a library sale in Chatham, one of the last books remaining after book buyers had picked through the wares. “An older crowd will have seen that book all the time,” said Donovan. “But a younger reader would love this,” he said. Indeed, it found its way to Old Books and was purchased shortly after.
By the end of the morning, Donovan had taken about 60 percent of Ryan’s books. Some would go directly to the store, others to Donovan’s storage unit along Route 9, where they joined roughly 10,000 other books stacked neatly in boxes up to the ceiling, all awaiting their turn on the shelves of Old Books. From a stranger’s home, to a storage unit, to the shelves at 610 Warren Street, Donovan is shepherding books between homes and lives.
A few days later, some of Ryan’s books were already in the window of Old Books, like “Sundials: A History of Theory and Practice.” Ryan was preparing for his move to Coxsackie. Donovan was already sifting through other collections. Before long, the book would likely be on the shelf of another perfect stranger.
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