See shelves by the sea shore
At Bob’s Beach Books,
anything prose
By Eliot Sekuler
For the TODAY
Bucking the tide of touch-screen information, e-commerce and shrinking attention spans, Bob’s Beach Books is thriving by staying carefully attuned to customer tastes, offering a welcoming atmosphere for browsers and attracting a regular book-loving clientele among Lincoln City locals and visitors.
Old-school, turn-the-pages-style reading is actually on the upswing. Sales of printed books have increased double-digits over the previous year in 2021 and the store, conveniently located in the heart of Lincoln City’s Oceanlake area, has been a beneficiary of the boom.
“It’s just a matter of getting a feel for what people want to see in the shop, and it’s usually not the New York Times best sellers,” said store manager Diana Portwood, who has been running this family-owned business for the past 15 years. The store’s shelves are lined with a mix of used and new books with offerings for every taste and interest.
“Paperback fiction is a strong point, along with regional nature and hiking guides,” she said. “Genre fiction and regional books are probably our most popular sections.”
Portwood regularly scans publisher catalogues and stays in contact with publisher sales staffers. She takes a curator’s pride in her Pacific Northwest author offerings and especially her support of Oregon writers.
“We have a section of Oregon authors that changes out as new things come in,” she said. “And every once in a while, an author will stop and sign copies of their book.”
Oregon has boasted an outsized literary tradition since boisterous buckskin poet and newspaper editor Joaquin Miller made a name for himself by recounting his exploits as a Pony Express rider and self-described “bonafide bard of the frontier.”
In the early years of the last century, journalists Louise Bryant and John Reed helped establish a left-of-center narrative tradition with their legendary dispatches from the front lines of the Russian Revolution. And later in the 20th Century, the Ken Kesey novels, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Sometimes A Great Notion,” and Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children series, beginning with the landmark “Clan of the Cave Bear,” helped grow the state’s reputation as a cradle of literary talent.
“Maybe it’s from all the rain we get,” Portwood said. “People spend a lot of time in their heads.”
Signs clearly call attention to books by Pacific Northwest writers throughout the store and two sections are dedicated to writers from the region: a non-fiction section for Northwest biography, memoir and history and another shelf with Oregon fiction.
Oregon’s authors constitute a very diverse group, Portwood noted, ranging from the “transgressional fiction” of “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk to the Portland-based author and illustrator of gentle children’s books Emily Martin, whom Portwood described as one the store’s most popular authors.
Other customer favorites have strong local roots, including Gleneden Beach-based mystery writer and journalist Ron Lovell, author of the Martindale Mysteries and the Lorenzo Madrid series. Portland-based Chelsea Cain, who has attended past Lincoln City library talks, is known for her graphic novels, most recently for the Man-Eater series published by Image Comics.
Mystery writer Emmeline Duncan grew up in Lincoln City and is now based in Portland.
Her 2021 mystery novel “Fresh Brewed Death” marked the start of her Ground Rules book series, which will continue with the 2022 publication of “Double Shot Death.”
“She writes good books and has a strong following here,” said Portwood, who added that her store has been taking pre-orders for “Double Shot Death” months before its publication.
In pre-pandemic days, Duncan was among the authors who visited Bob’s Beach Books to sign books and chat with customers, and counts herself a fan of the shop.
“As an Oregon author, I sincerely appreciate the support I've received from Diana and Bob's Beach Books,” she said. “As a customer, I love investigating the shelves because l never know which new gem I'll find. It's always hard not to walk away with a massive bag of books because I want to buy a copy of at least half of the books they stock. As a writer, I appreciate that I see books by a wide range of local authors. People talk about the ‘discoverability’ of books, which means people are more likely to buy books they see in person or hear about from trusted sources. Knowing that indie shops like Bob's showcase local books means authors are more likely to connect with readers, which is invaluable.”
With no “return to normal” in sight, Portwood and other book lovers are encouraged by the sense that, despite the rise of new technology and the challenges of the pandemic era, independent bookstores and the enduring print medium are here to stay.
“There’s a comfort in holding a book,” Portwood said. “You hold this tangible thing in front of you and, if you need to, you can flip the pages back and forth. You can highlight things and you can give the book to a friend. And sure, you can do some of those things with e-books and audio books, but it’s just not the same.”
Bob’s Beach Books is located at 1735 NW Highway 101 in Lincoln City.
For more information and to order books, go to bookshop.org/shop/bobsbeachbooks.