Gallery Bookshop and Bookwinkle's Children's Books in Mendocino, Mendocino County, United States | Bookshop

For more than 20 years a cat has greeted visitors to Mendocino's Gallery Bookshop. The earliest cat-about-store was Leander, whom current owner Tony Miksak inherited when he purchased the business in 1980. When Leander used up his ninth life, a number of "applicants" -- or were they appli-cats? -- stopped by to investigate bookstore life. It was Colette, a friendly, long-haired dark chocolate cat born in the courtyard behind the shop who finally decided books were for her. She's been sleeping on them ever since. Draped gracefully over fiction or promenading elegantly through the store each morning, Colette purrs her greeting to our many visitors.

The historic Jarvis-Nichols building (a white-painted Victorian constructed in 1877 of virgin redwood from the surrounding region) has housed Gallery Bookshop since 1962. Founded in the days when Mendocino was truly an artist colony, the store was originally as much art gallery as book store. However, times changed and books gradually assumed their dominant role in this lively business. By the time Tony Miksak (who also writes Words On Books, a weekly 5-minute book review program for our local public radio station KZYX) acquired the store, books were at the center of things. In 1993, we doubled our size by opening a wall and connecting with a spacious room facing Mendocino Bay. Children's books, a store speciality, now occupy the additional space.

From the front door of Gallery Bookshop, customers may see gray whales spouting as they migrate off shore. A mournful fog horn protects the rocky headlands from stray fishing boats. Across the street are miles of state park headlands with hawks, flowers, mushrooms and trails for hikers. It is possible, and even encouraged, to purchase a book and read it with a picnic on the edge of the continent located just a few minutes away.