BOOK
Coastal Life
Story and photos by MATT LOVE
STORES
In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, visit one
of the many shops that enrich the Columbia Pacific
O
ver the long years of my coast-
al life, I have found one of the
more soothing and rewarding
experiences is stepping inside
an independent bookstore.
Nothing compares to the inti-
macy of their ambiance. They
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of everything digital, distant and anonymous
in our increasingly fast-paced culture.
Here’s what you can expect when you en-
ter one of the independent bookstores from
Manzanita to Long Beach, quite possibly the
highest concentration of such establishments
in Oregon and Washington outside of Port-
land and Seattle:
The store will exist in a charming retail
space and not sell tires and cheese alongside
books. It will smell good inside, vaguely of
tea and wood. There might be a crackling
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thumbing through books. There will be a real
person — not a website or a phone app —
who greets you with “hello” and is knowl-
edgeable and passionate about books. Most
likely that person is the owner of the shop.
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No problem. The owner will gladly order it
for you. Looking for a recommendation for a
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eagerly provide one. She’s read everything
under the sun.
The store will have robust local history
and local authors sections. It will advertise
community events. It will sponsor and host
literary presentations that enable independent
authors and publishers (like me) to succeed
reaching readers. In fact, for many authors,
these stores are practically the only way they
can reach readers. I would have never sur-
vived as an Oregon publisher for 13 years
without their existence and generosity.
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bookstore culture — the bookworms among
us. They are a resilient and loyal bunch who
didn’t allow the disappearance of the inde-
4 | April 30, 2015 | coastweekend.com
Oz the book cat snoozes in Seaside’s Beach Books.
Jupiter’s Books offers new and used books and a rare book col-
lection.
The quaint entrance to the Cannon Beach Book Company.
Beach Books in Seaside boasts a spacious interior, an upstairs art gallery and Oz, the book cat.
They’re dead. I haven’t missed them at all.
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Yes, visit an independent bookstore and
you will be enriched by the experience. It ba-
sically comes down to this with coastal inde-
pendent bookstores: Small is good; small is
Lucy’s Books in Astoria is happy to place special orders for customers.
special. It also comes down to this: I asked
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SHQGHQWERRNVWRUHLQWKH$JHRIWKH,QWHUQHW ria, what her greatest pleasure was of operat-
unlike the denizens of record store culture. It ing an independent bookstore. She said, “It’s
could have happened and that would have re- DERXWEHLQJDEOHWRKHOSUHDGHUV¿QGERRNV´
sulted in a catastrophic loss for this nation’s
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intellectual life. It was predicted by many in that distinctive human touch.
the late 1990s as the big box book retailers
May 2, 2015 is Independent Bookstore
dominated the landscape in shopping malls. Day across the country and what better time
to show your support for the fantastic ones in
our area: Cloud and Leaf Books in Manza-
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Book Company in Cannon Beach; Beach
Books in Seaside; Godfather’s Books and Lu-
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Ilwaco. Visit these proud purveyors of litera-
ture and come out loaded down with books.
Matt Love lives in Astoria and is the
author/editor of 13 books about
Oregon, including “A Nice Piece of
Astoria: A Narrative Guide.” They are
available at coastal bookstores and
through www.nestuccaspitpress.com