A Wonderful Little Old Fashioned Book Store

On the Northern California Coast, in the scenic town of Carmel is an enchanting old fashioned independent book store, located off Highway One in The Crossroads Shopping Village, north of the Carmel River. On a small blue awning above a wooden door with glass panels in a New England style building with gray exterior paneling is the name of this book store: River House Books.

It is just 2500 square feet in size, a fraction the size of a book superstore. 2500 square feet is about the size of two average U.S. homes, and the entire store is on one story, on a wood plank floor. When giant superstore chain Borders went bankrupt last year, this little mom and pop bookstore became the only one left in the area.

River House Books is a place where the owner, Diane Keene Simonds may assist you, something that will never happen at a giant chain store, where the CEO of a publicly held company is in some distant place, responsible for thousands of people in numerous stores. Anne and I were cordially assisted by members of Diane's six person part-time staff. Chairs are placed around the store so readers can leisurely thumb through the books. It is a quiet and relaxing place where occasionally authors of local interest discuss their books, and a place where book lovers can meet each other.

It is a place where readers can discover books they didn't know about and if after thumbing through them, they like the books well enough, they can buy them and walk out of the store with those books in a bag. Instant gratification. It will never be an Amazon.com or Walmart and it can't compete in price. But it is so charming, Anne and I each bought a book there and enjoyed the tranquility of a store that made it a joy to shop for books. In fact it was such a joy, that Anne finally had to coax me out of there.

Dick
Thank you to Diane Keene Simonds, the proprietor/owner for her assistance in telling this story and more importantly, for her devotion to this little store. The "pop" in this mom and pop book store is her husband Gordon Simonds, a pleasure to speak with.