Max Fleisher’s favorite book in the used bookstore he runs on the Corner, just opposite the University of Virginia’s Grounds, is “Successful Muskrat Farming,” published by the Fur Trade Journal of Canada.
Fleisher, a third-year student at UVA, is neither a farmer nor a furrier – nor does he have ambitions to become one. He just likes a nicely made book, and “Successful Muskrat Farming,” with its marbled end pages and gilt spine, fits the bill.
“I paid a lot to have this book,” Fleisher said in an interview inside Ginkgo Bookshop. The business occupies the same space as the former Heartwood Books, a secondhand bookshop that had been open nearly 50 years when owner Paul Collinge decided to retire.
Fleisher, along with co-founder Molly Canipe, a fourth-year student from Charlotte majoring in global development studies, and two other undergraduates (Miles Miskill, a third-year student in environmental science, and Margot Ross, a second-year student) have been running Ginkgo Bookshop since January.
Max Fleisher, currently in his third year, says he plans to sell books after he graduates. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
“I’ve been coming to this bookstore since I was a first-year,” Fleisher, a political and social thought major, said. “I started working for Paul last spring, and he had been telling people he planned to close the bookstore, and part of my working there was preparing to close. But in the back of my mind, there was always a question of, ‘What if we continue this thing?’”
Canipe knew Fleisher, a Houston native, through the Jefferson Scholars program. She had been visiting Heartwood Books and “bothering” Collinge since she was a first-year student, and bonded with Fleisher over their shared love of books and Heartwood in particular.
“We started thinking about the idea of it being student-run at the beginning of the spring semester in 2025,” said Canipe, whose favorite title in Ginkgo Bookshop is “How Do You Spank a Porcupine?” by Ronald Rood.
They hunted down a few different funding sources, none of which came to fruition. But it was toward the end of the past fall semester when, Fleisher said, he and Canipe realized they were too deep into the process to give up.
They pooled their own money and called the landlord to take over the lease on 5 Elliewood Ave. They’ve gotten a crash course in how to do taxes for a small business and keep the used bookstore’s doors open. Ginkgo Bookshop has been operating since earlier this year.
Molly Canipe stands behind the register to check out a customer. Canipe also handles programming for the bookstore after hours. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
Canipe and Fleisher chose the name Ginkgo for the store because of a tradition practiced by associate professor of global studies David Edmunds.
“We wanted to keep a tree-themed name, and David Edmunds is my major adviser and an unofficial adviser in the early stages of Ginkgo Books,” Canipe said. “During the graduation ceremonies for global development studies students, he passes out ginkgo leaves from the Pratt ginkgo. There’s, I believe, one leaf from the first fall semester of the graduating class, and one from the spring semester.”
Fleisher, an old book enthusiast, handles most of the book buying.
“It’s essential for us to have both popular books and rare books, because we cater to both customers, because we live in an academic town and the Rare Book School is here. There are professional book collectors and sellers and librarians here,” Fleisher said.
Last summer, he even attended the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar in Minnesota to prepare.
