A bookstore for those on the ‘Prairie’

You won’t find “The Da Vinci Code,” Harlequin romance novels or the “Dummies” series of how-to books in Garrison Keillor’s new bookstore in St. Paul, Minn., and if you find the latest John Grisham novel, it could be on the “Quality Trash” table.

The man behind “A Prairie Home Companion” has opened Common Good Books in a basement nook in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood, and his literary tastes are on display. There’s a special focus on local and regional authors and Keillor’s favorite poetry. The works of another Keillor favorite, and St. Paul native, F. Scott Fitzgerald, fill an entire shelf.

“We’re not trying to be all things to all people,” said store manager Sue Zumberge. “It’s not because we look down on those; it’s just because you can find them elsewhere.”

Keillor, 64, has said he wanted to run an independent bookstore because he likes to “walk into them and sit and read in them.”