Meet Julie Buckles | Owner of Honest Dog Books & Author of Paddling to Winter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Julie Buckles and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Julie, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Ha! There was zero process, only gut instinct. I had no intentions of starting/owning a business. I walked into a favorite bookstore of mine to buy a book of poetry, and walked out having bought the bookstore. I had a full-time career, two teens, a kennel of sled dogs but this felt right and it was the best thing I ever did.

What should our readers know about your business?
Honest Dog Books is located on Second Street in Bayfield, Wisconsin, a town of 466. We have a fish shop down the street and can see Lake Superior from our front door. We are a quirky bookstore with creaky wooden floors with a sturdy open beam holding up our roof. The building is part of the lumber era from the turn of the century. A man named Stephen Dunker turned the space into a bookstore of maze-like shelves. There are no straight lines in this store and people can lost in the adventure of browsing books. I love this space and can’t believe I get to spend my days here. Out back we have an open courtyard where people can sit and read and we can host events.

I changed the name of the store when I bought it three years ago from What Goes Round to Honest Dog Books for two reasons. For one, I wanted to bring in new books because I wanted to have the books I love and want to recommend so we have highly curated new books in with the used. Secondly, I’m a dog musher and Honest Dog is a term of endearment for your favorite dogs, the ones that never mess around, always hold the line tight, and you know you can count on. Customer service is really important to me so I wanted to provide that kind of honest dog service.

I also learned from a bookseller that we could be known for whatever we wanted to be known for. That bookselling is not a passive endeavor of receiving and selling books from bestseller lists or books people bring you. We really dug into what we’re passionate about and created sections like adventure, Arctic, dogs, nature, trees, badass women, healing arts, indigenous, and regional plus all the usuals like philosophy, history, memoir, biography, art, etc.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We are wee town of 466 residents, located on Lake Superior, amongst the Apostle Islands. So first off, let’s get on the lake. The best way to see and experience the lake is to kayak the sea caves at one of our outfitters. The sea caves are spectacular and best seen near sunset. Next, we might take the ferry and go check out Madeline Island, hike at Big Bay State Park, and have a cocktail at Tommy’s Burned Down Cafe. Then it’s time to pull on your hiking boots. I have a few favorite hikes that follow or end at Lake Superior. For food, it’s white fish. Broiled, fried, smoked, it’s a must. I love eating fish tacos on the roof of the Bayfield Inn. I don’t mountain bike, but my family does, and this region is growing a reputation for mountain biking. More cocktails? Let’s head to Copper Crow, the only Native American-owned distillery in the country. They make the best cocktails. And for evening entertainment, we will indeed head to the Big Top Chautauqua, an old-school canvas revival tent that attracts the likes of Brandi Carlile and Michael Franti. Be sure to stop by Howl Adventure, located on the outskirts of town. You can’t miss the large wolf puppet. There you will find all you need to know about outdoor recreation in the region + Adventure Brewing is connected with picnic tables. If you’re lucky, the food truck will be open and you can have a brew and yes, fish tacos.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I credit my Twitter and online community for helping me through the pandemic. I was sitting with 10,000 used books, had only owned the store for six months, and with no inventory, when we shut down due to Covid. I put an offer: answer three questions and send me $9 + shipping. And they responded. I had about 1,000 orders. It was a great education for me to get to know my customers, my store, my books. And now, this SurpriseMe! has expanded into boxes and a subscription service.

A big shoutout to Bookshop.org, they established a website early in 2019, as a way to capture a slice of the Goliath Amazon’s pie. Then Covid hit and they were a lifeline to Honest Dog Books and many others. We now have our own webstore but continue to be part of Bookshop.org.

Website: https://honestdogbooks.com/

Instagram: @honestdogbooks

Twitter: @bookshonest

Facebook: https://facebook.com/honestdogbooks

Image Credits
Tim Gruber Jeremy Oswald