It Takes a Village Books: 35 Years of Building Community, One Book at a Time

by Chuck Robinson

It Takes a Village Books is the story of an idea that became a bookstore and a bookstore that became a central part of the community. The book chronicles thirty years of the publishing and bookselling business-both here and abroad. It recounts some local and national censorship and privacy incidents, and offers a glimpse into the future of the book and bookstores. Along the way you'll meet four U.S. Presidents, a U.K. Prime Minister, dozens of authors, and quite a few interesting booksellers. It's also a personal story of two people who found their passion and turned it into a life.

Genres: Nonfiction

259 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here where I live in Bellingham (Washington state), Village Books is a true local institution, an independent bookseller with a strong community focus that has been in business for forty-five years. The fact that Village Books has survived the onslaught of big box chain stores in the 1990's and the scorched earth business practices of Amazon in the early twenty-first century is a testament that there is much more to the store than the bottom line.

So this memoir by one of the founders of Village Books is a fascinating history of how that longevity was achieved, and how the founder's genuine interest in contributing to their community made for all sorts of interesting connections. The book is written in a very chatty format, so it's a quick read, but Chuck Robinson manages to convey a lot of information nonetheless. His involvement with the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and other organizations embroiled him in our nation's never-ending censorship wars, and his resilience as a fierce advocate of free of expression is impressive.

Even though this book was last updated a decade ago, it's still a very worthwhile read for my fellow Bellinghamsters, and for anyone who admires that all-too-rare approach to capitalism that favors shared community wealth over private hoarding.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, to meet again, after fifty years, Chuck and Dee Robinson!

And to learn they've been living in the sweet town of Bellingham, WA in the Pacific Northwest.

And to see that they've built from the scratch of their own ideas and dreams, a bookstore! An independent bookstore that has grown and evolved for over 30 years now.

And to find that it's not just a bookstore, but what appears to be the hub of literacy and culture and ideas and art and speakers and authors and books and community groups and, well . . . people!

Last month we visited in person to see some of this in action, and I brought Chuck's book home with me to dig deeper into this phenomena. It's an inspiring and uplifting story! And I am totally amazed!

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biography memoir of my first independent bookstore :) I was a patron here for almost as long as I can remember (at least whenever I was allowed to start picking out my own Smithsonian stuffed animal, book, audiobook sets which, when a young child, are the coolest ever). It was great to get the history of the bookstore along with the community I grew up in both before and as I was growing up. Not sure if there's much non-local appeal beyond how awesome building a bookish community is (but as this is Goodreads I have a feeling most people hear won't mind reading about that one bit).

[Adrienne Manwaring · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having lived in Bellingham only a few years, and being a big fan of VB, this story was very interesting to me. The selfish side of me hopes Chuck & Dee never retire! Very interesting life story.

[Linda Gaines]

Interesting history of the Bellingham book store in Fairhaven

[Tymikia Glenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t really catch on to this one. But it was nice reading how Chuck and Dee started their independent bookstore in the 80’s, that’s still open today.