Gallery Bookshop
and Bookwinkle's Children's Books 
At the corner of Main and Kasten Streets
Open: 7 days/week,
9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; to 9 p.m Friday and Saturday nights.
P.O. Box 270, Mendocino, California 95460
Telephone: (707) 937-2665 Fax: (707) 937-3737
Email:
info@gallerybooks.com
Store Focus:
general interest new books, fiction, children's, sale books, magazines
A Brief History of Gallery Bookshop and Bookwinkle's Children's Books
by Katy Tahja
For 25 years now Tony Miksak has been perfecting community bookselling at Gallery Bookshop & Bookwinkle's Children's Books. He relates it to the feeling Mark Twain had piloting in the wheelhouse of a paddlewheel riverboat on the Mississippi River.
Pilots occupy a little space on a very large boat but they keep things on course and everyone depends on them. That's what Tony does from a tiny office hidden in the back of the Bookshop for 25 years. Through tight spots and smooth sailing his Bookshop in the village of Mendocino grows and prospers and keeps everything on course.
Serendipity brought Tony to the ownership of the Bookshop. Educated as a journalist and a classical musician, he ended up in Mendocino in the 1970's because his parents had a vacation home there. Working as a bartender in the Seagull Bar for seven years, he also found time to be an avid reader.
Gallery Bookshop was owned by Betty Goodman then. Reaching retirement age she mentioned to Tony as he inspected chess books one day if he might know anyone interested in buying the place. His hand shot up and he said "Me!" and a whole new course down the river of life was plotted.
With almost non-existent training he took the helm and tried to figure out how to stay in midstream. He credits Savings Bank with helping him understand financial management and David Jones, his former boss at the Seagull, for teaching him about customer service.
Tony remembers the early years as featuring an abundance of self confidence on his part coupled with frequent doses of panic and a total lack of knowledge. He learned the stock of books constantly needed to change. He strived for maximum choice in subject areas while making it all easy to find.
With a love of writing Tony started a "Bibliomania" column in the Art Center's A&E magazine that in later years evolved into Words on Books audio segments on KZYX radio.
As a gadget lover he's used computers since the early 1980's and has always seen to the technological updates that let his booksellers search for and order any book a customer needs as fast as Amazon.com can, and with no shipping. Browse globally, shop locally, Tony suggests.
www.gallerybooks.com gives folks around the globe access to the Bookshop, and with a webcam view of Mendocino Bay everyone can enjoy the scene from the Bookshop windows.
Website visitors learn about the Book Angels program. A holiday season tradition, it provides customers a way to buy just the right book for a needy child in the local community. Personal reading recommendations by staff members are also posted along with upcoming author visits.
Part of keeping a riverboat on course is a crew, and the Bookshop has had a colorful cast of characters over 25 years. Manager Linda Pack had been on board over 20 years and five different employees have worked a decade or more. Over those 25 years more than 50 booksellers have been pursuing Tony's goal of providing excellent customer service.
When Tony took over the Bookshop in 1980 he extended the hours because he wanted average working folks who got off work at 5 p.m. to be able to browse. He stayed open Sundays working alone. When using the restroom, which was a tiny freestanding structure behind the shop in the courtyard, he had a customer watch the store.
As the store grew Tony learned, and he invented procedures to solve problems. He became famous for bad handwriting after signing hundreds of checks. Finally a business consultant and a bookkeeper helped him organize his ideas and keep the business in the black.
Over the years the Bookshop produced smaller shops in the village as certain products outgrew their space. Confetti card shop existed in more than one space and was replaced by Bookwinkle's Children's Books on Kasten & Albion streets. Finally in 1993 the Main Street location became available and everything was under one roof again.
Tony feels the biggest change in Mendocino over 25 years is really how little it's changed. Visitors comment they love coming back because it still feels the same. And for the ice cream toting tourist or the local yoga teacher, Tony's goal is still the same. Excellent selection and excellent service highlight 25 years of community bookselling.
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 purred her greeting to our many visitors. [Alas, Colette has now left us too. Ed.]
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.
Although Mendocino is a long way from anywhere (so some would think), Gallery Bookshop and Bookwinkle's Children's Books draw devoted customers from as far away as Germany and Japan. In part the attraction is the picturesque setting. However, the store's outstanding selection of books -- a deep backlist in almost every area -- as well as a knowledgable and willing staff who follow the "no pointing rule" (employees will accompany a customer to the shelves to find a book or make suggestions) make this bookstore a must-see . According to owner Miksak, "service is everything here, and customers appreciate it."
Like many other NCIBA stores, Gallery Bookshop is involved in its community. For several years, its store and staff have promoted Book Angels. According to Miksak, "with donations from publishers and sales reps, we're able to get books into the hands of children who might otherwise have none for the holidays. Each year we and our customers deliver gift wrapped new books to more than 700 local children." Similarly, when free speech issues arise, Gallery Bookshop stands up for the unhampered and uncensored right of free expression. "When the Salman Rushdie fatwa was announced, the store put on a continuous all-day reading of The Satanic Verses as well as a community-signed letter of support" noted Miksak. In April of 1999 we created our First Annual All-Day Poetry Reading. Forty local poets read their own works for 15 minutes each to an enthusiastic and responsive crowd.
Gallery Bookshop and Bookwinkle's Children's Books also hosts author readings and signings. Telephone or email for information on events or directions to the store. Telephone: (707) 937-2665; email: tony@gallerybooks.com
Latitude 39 degrees 18' north; Longitude 123 degrees 48' west
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