Store

Third Place Books in Ravenna wants to be your friend. Rough pine bookshelves, an abundance of comfy chairs, a Honey Bear Cafe that serves three meals (plus cupcakes and coffee), and a basement pub ... the store has the same welcoming glow you always hoped your mother's kitchen would—and they'll serve you a cup of warm milk if you can't sleep, though they only read bedtime stories at 11 a.m. on Saturdays.

Third Place lacks the grimy mystique of a true used book store; the Web site says that the majority of their selection is used, but if they want us to believe it, they're going to have to become less clean. Most of their selection can pass for new before you pull it off the shelf, and their collectibles lean toward plastic-wrapped hardcovers that should have gone straight to mass-market paperback.

But their priorities are in place: "Fiction" takes up more than half the floor space, "poetry" is larger than "diet and health," and a special space is set aside for children's books, with a sprawl-friendly rug. If you're looking for something specific, you have a decent chance of finding it here, and if you're not, even better. Treasure hunts don't have to end with the crew buried alive. (There's a larger, though less intimate, store in Lake Forest, if you're dead-set on a particular title.)

Like a good wine shop, the shelves are dotted with educated and unpretentious suggestions from the staff. The reading accessories selection is Archie McPhee meets Barnes and Noble; double points for the chocolate bars from Theo, Seattle's best newest chocolate shop. The store also maintains a busy slate of readings and live music in the Honey Bear space, right in front of a sometimes-roaring fireplace. Try not to take the intrusion personally, gentle readers. Third Place still loves you best.

By Dawn McCarra Bass
Special to NWsource