There’s this wonderful Hobbit hole of a used bookstore in Santa Rosa and it is a bibliophile’s dream. When I walk into Treehorn Books I feel as if I’m entering one of those archaic shops in the Diagon Alley of Harry Potter novels. There are books piled on top of books, books behind books, books on the floor, it’s a veritable cacophony of books!  Wheeled metal ladders provide access to the top of the ten foot high shelves that line the walls. At Treehorn you’ll find books on every subject imaginable; from UFO’s to Metaphysics, the Kennedy assassination to rafting down the Yang Tse River. Romance novel maven Danielle Steele is represented here as well as classic authors like Faulkner, Hemingway and all points in between. You name it, Treehorn’s got it. I once found a book there written by a woman who travelled around France with her family on a quest to find the source of the ingredients in the baguettes she and her family enjoyed while on holiday there. Not exactly best seller stuff but quirky, original and a good read; in other words the typical book tucked away in the stacks here.

The dim, yellow cast lighting at Treehorn Books adds an extra layer of mystery to the place. There’s just enough light to read by but it’s low enough to where I feel like I can hide in plain sight among the stacks. And the smell! For me there’s something so comforting and familiar about that universal used bookstore smell. I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation as to what chemical compounds make up that smell but I like to think that it’s equal parts age, wisdom and wonder.

I rarely enter Treehorn with a specific title or author in mind. With no plan I have no expectations; I just open my mind and browse. I never know what I’m going to find here so it’s kind of like hunting for buried treasure. I read the book spines, check out the cover art, read the synopsis on the dust jacket. If it moves me, I usually buy it. I occasionally find interesting things inside of the books. On a book I recently purchased someone had written this Serbian proverb on the inside back cover: Be noble for you are made of stars. Be humble for you are made of earth. I thought that was so neat, a message out of the blue reminding me that life should be lived with grace and humility.

I have a particular fondness for a used book. The creases in the cover are like wrinkles. The yellowed and dog-eared pages are all telltale signs that this book has passed through many hands. In some way, reading a used book is like having a shared experience with someone whom I’ve never meet.

The price of each book here is written in pencil on the title page. If there are multiple copies of a book that I’m interested in, I’ll check the prices on all of them. Occasionally the same two books in the exact same condition will have two different prices! The human touch, it’s all over this bookstore. When I’m inside, I can feel the deep sense of love and respect that the  owners have for books and how much they value reading.

When the COVID lockdown happened last March, Treehorn was one of the first places I thought of. Would they survive? A world without used bookshops seemed unimaginable to me. Initially, bookshops were closed because they were not considered “essential”. Can you believe that? To me reading is essential! As a grade school teacher, I’d always tell my students, “Reading is the most important thing you’ll do in school.” Before they were allowed to reopen, I called Treehorn a couple of times with a list of books that I wanted to buy. Even though he wasn’t supposed to, the owner took my order over the phone and arranged to meet me out front with my books in a plain brown paper bag. I felt like we were co-conspirators in a drug deal or something.

Books are essential. You can stare at a Kindle until you fry your retinas, but in my mind there’s no substitute for a real book. Technology has improved many things in our world but books are not one of them. I love the feel of a book in my hands and that rustling leaves sound the pages make as I turn them. With anticipation I open the cover, eager to unlock the secrets within.