Treasured American Fork used bookstore prepares for closure
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- Cara Boren, a customer of HideAway Books, looks over books to purchase Friday, March 7, 2025.
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- Hundreds of books fill the shelves of a bookcase inside HideAway Books in American Fork on Friday, March 7, 2025.
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- HideAway Books owner Heidi Rowley stands at a treasured book case filled with rare finds Friday, March 7, 2025.
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- Books on a shelf at HideAway Books in American Fork are pictured Friday, March 7, 2025.
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- Sienna Cullimore, an employee at HideAway Books, works at the cash register Friday, March 7, 2025.
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- Books on a shelf at HideAway Books in American Fork are pictured Friday, March 7, 2025.
For the past two months, Heidi Rowley and her staff at HideAway Books have been busy transporting thousands of books tucked away in a storage unit over to their American Fork storefront to sort through and shelve for incoming book lovers.
The mass restocking isn’t a part of a typical clearance sale; instead, they are liquidating as the used bookstore prepares to close.
Rowley, owner of HideAway Books, made the bittersweet announcement of the store’s “slow closure” in early January.
Since then, longtime and new customers visiting the bookstore are taking in the final pages of its journey.
At HideAway Books, people can come in and exchange their books for ones others have read. While the store mostly sells used books, it also carries new ones.
Cara Boren, a mom from Saratoga Springs, said she’s been coming to the bookstore for about two years and was sad to learn that the bookstore would be closing.
On Friday, Boren was picking up two children’s books: “Spring Fever,” about characters on “Sesame Street,” and “My Dear Little One,” which she said had been hard to find.
“I love children’s books, which is why this one’s great, especially for my daughter. But I’ve been collecting children’s books long before I had her as well. I do a lot of YA (young adult) reading, and just recently got into some romance books,” Boren said.
The joy of reading a wide array of books and experiencing the work of different authors has been a part of Rowley’s life since she was a child.
“I love books, I was one of those kids who snuck books under the covers with a flashlight,” she said.
Rowley and her kids would often travel to different bookstores in Provo and in Salt Lake County. In 2017, she chose to take a chance in opening her own used bookstore in northern Utah County.
“I was at a crossroads in my job and decided that I was a little bit crazy and decided to open a bookstore in American Fork,” Rowley said.
The bookstore initially operated out of a 500-square-foot basement before moving to its permanent location at 8 E. Main St.
“It’s just been a fun place to be,” Rowley told the Daily Herald. “I’m a big used-book buyer. I love used books; I like to save money. I also like the treasure hunt of a used bookstore.”
From children’s picture books to vintage out-of-print books, signed first-edition copies and just about anything and everything in between, one could spend countless hours combing through the collection of titles inside HideAway Books.
The bookstore has been a staple in the community, especially during events like Halloween on Main, where they would hand out 2,000 books to children.
Over the years, Rowley has had the opportunity to see those children grow up.
“I had a little boy who wrote me a story because he loved coming to the bookstore so much,” she said. “So he wrote a story and came and read it to me and dedicated it to the bookstore. Then I saw him earlier this week, and he’s now a young man.”
Rowley shared other fond memories of connecting people through the power of reading such as through family bonding time and even some people who had a first date at HideAway Books.
Aside from the many customers who have supported the bookstore, the thing she will miss most is helping nonreaders discover a book they found interesting.
“That’s a really meaningful connection,” she said. “It’s a $2 (or) $3 book, but it’s opening up a world to somebody who thinks they don’t like reading.”
But even through the fulfilling sentiment of inspiring a culture of readers, running a small business can be tricky.
“There’s always huge roller coasters, ups and downs, and trying to navigate those is always a challenge,” Rowley said.
Rowley cited some factors that played a part in her decision to close the bookstore, including a national bookstore chain that opened nearby last year and the more trendy novel style titles that customers are seeking out.
“Because we, as a used book store, don’t get those in right away, they take some time to filter (in),” she said. “And so used bookstores are never going to be like the trendy location; we’re more like the holders of the past.”
Those challenges, mixed with other pressures of sustaining a small business, led her to make the difficult choice to close shop.
HideAway Books will remain open until May 17. In the meantime, its liquidation sale is underway with 25% off pre-priced items in the store. Rowley said there are still more than 20,000 books in their storage units.
Employee Sienna Cullimore has worked at HideAway Books for four years. She, too, is a book lover and enjoyed meeting different people and getting ideas about new material to read.
Cullimore said she’ll miss the book shoppers and interacting with the community during different events.
“It’s really weird to think about. It’s not like I’m friends with these people, but I’ve been seeing the same people every week for the last four years, never gonna see them again,” she said.
As the final chapter for HideAway Books emerges, Rowley encourages consumers to support small businesses that depend on their communities to survive.
“I feel like small businesses are the culture of a community. And when you don’t have small businesses in a community, your culture is franchises and corporations. And without the small businesses, you don’t have any individuality,” Rowley said.
HideAway Books is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m to 6 p.m.
