TULSA, Okla. — “This is my passion project,” Jeff Martin said, smiling like a shy maître d’ as he held open the door to Magic City Books, a nonprofit bookstore on a gritty corner in Tulsa’s small but vibrant arts district.
Booksellers love to joke about the many unpaid aspects of their jobs, including after-hours reading. But Martin, 45, a lanky mashup of Jimmy Stewart and the Man with the Yellow Hat, wasn’t exaggerating about the volunteer nature of his work or the zeal he brings to it.
Magic City — named for Tulsa’s oil boomtown heyday and not to be confused with the Atlanta strip club of the same name — is set up like a museum, with a board of directors and tax exempt status. Martin, a co-founder and the president of its board, has never earned a dime off the place, which hosts six reading groups and more than 100 author events per year, often with him as emcee…