This former Nebraska attorney loves books so much, she opened a bookstore in St. Paul

Weary from the rat race nature of practicing commercial law, Danielle Miller had long dreamed of starting a new professional life as a bookstore owner. When the Lincoln, Neb., resident saw a space at St. Paul’s Union Depot, she moved to make her dream a reality. She and her husband now call the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood home.

Eye On St. Paul recently visited with Miller in her sun-drenched store, Story Line Books, to talk about what spurred her to leave the law behind and lose herself in shelves of books. This interview was edited for length.

Q: So, you’ve opened a bookstore, in Lowertown. Are you a little crazy?

A: That’s been the reaction. There’s been a lot of “Really? Lowertown?” There’s been a lot of that. It’s a little unnerving.

Q: Why decide to just up and move to St. Paul?

A: We travel a lot; we travel all over the world. And we go to bookstores. We were here visiting [my husband’s] parents in Woodbury, and we drove down Randolph because we like to eat at Due Focacceria. And we saw this building that had “For Sale” on it. It was a 900-square-foot retail spot on the bottom and an apartment above. And I was like, that is the European bookstore dream, right? I looked it up online, but it got scooped up. A week later, I was looking again and this [Union Depot space] was the first post.

I was immediately in love. The next time we were up here, we made arrangements to come and see it. And I told my husband, “You should probably get a job in St Paul.”

Q: Back up a few steps. Why this compulsion to open a bookstore when you were a working attorney?

A: I have always been a reader. I find a lot of peace in books. I find a lot of peace in bookstores. And peace was something that was very, very lacking in my life. I was working 100-hour weeks. I was getting screamed at in phone calls — from opposing counsel and everybody else.

It was a very demoralizing line of work.

We got a chance to go to London, and we were walking around in all these bookstores, and I’m getting these [work] emails. I’m supposed to be on vacation. But it just doesn’t stop. And I just stood in a bookstore in London and thought, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I just want to feel peace.’ And as I’m standing in that bookstore, this is where I feel peace.”

Q: Opening a bookstore requires more than loving to read, doesn’t it?

A: Yeah. But I have an undergraduate degree in business [economics and finance and a minor in accounting]. I worked with small businesses for the first four years of my career, the latter four years of my career in mergers and acquisitions. None of this is new to me.

And so, I’m very familiar with the processes and the way that business is done, and so that part then doesn’t scare me.

A lot of people think that being in Lowertown should scare me [because of crime]. I think that coming from somewhere else, maybe I’m looking at it with a fresh set of eyes. All I’m seeing is all of this amazing food, this absolutely spectacular building that is a transit hub and used to be one of the biggest transit hubs in the country. It’s bananas.

I just see so much potential. And I see a community that is a reader community. And we throw these community events, and the [Depot] is busting at the seams. We had the Art Crawl last week, and it was absolutely packed. And the Bloody Mary Festival — packed. We feel like we are taking on the revitalization and the rebirth of Union Depot as a major community center.

Q: How much time are you giving yourself to make this work?

A: I have a three-year lease. So, that would be sort of when I’ll know. But the first two weekends here were already more than I thought they’d be. I was more crowded than I thought I would be. I did more business than I thought I would. So, I’m feeling incredibly hopeful.

Q: What kind of bookstore is this?

A: It’s a general bookstore. We have a little bit of everything. I have only one cookbook, and that’s a hot dish cookbook. We have specific books on trains, on St. Paul, on Union Depot, and we have a probably larger than would be expected children’s section. We have a lot of games that are travel-friendly, almost all of which were made here in Minnesota. We have gifts. They’re all Minnesota-based. I’m very proud of my new home.

Q: There are now two daily trains that go to and from Chicago [the Empire Builder and the Borealis]. Is that enough traffic?

A: The Depot has been really great in supporting me and promoting me during their events. We have author events, author signings. We’ll have book clubs. I really want to host a trivia night where you’re allowed to cheat, but only with books. No Google. If you know which book to look for, you can go get it and look it up. I really want to be putting on things that allow people to gather and talk about books.

Q: How does Lincoln compare to St. Paul?

A: They’re very similar. You get the small-town vibe. But with 300,000 people, there’s always stuff happening. The only time that I feel homesick for Nebraska is when we’re watching Husker games on TV, because it is pretty wild to be in a place with 95,000 people that all want the same thing.

Q: You’ve only been open a few weeks. Have you found peace?

A: Yeah, I just want to be here all the time. I get to talk to people about what they’re reading, which is always a joy. I’m finding out about so much out there. My distributor’s catalog has 500 million titles in it. And I think I knew that there were that many books in the world, but it’s really something else to see them sorted on a website. My literary worldview has exploded.