“Freadom” of Thinking
Inside a Small-Town Business That’s Changing the World One Book at a Time
To my right are the words, “Books, sex, and rock n’ roll,” “Freadom,” and, “Got book? We do,” among various other things.
It is a quilt hanging from the wall that is adorned with such an eclectic patchwork of phrases, and it catches my eye as I glance down upon shelves teeming with books of all kinds, softly lit by the warm glow of still remaining holiday lights. It’s a cozy January night in Village Books as I sit overlooking the balcony in the upstairs cafe, reading through the Tenth Canto of Dante’s Inferno. The worker behind the counter hustles and bustles to close up for the night, and below me I can hear the murmur of friendly conversation as the last remaining customers buy their items and meander out the door a quarter till closing time.
Village Books became one of my favorite places in the endearing college town of Bellingham, Washington, as soon as I walked through the doors for the first time, last September. I have always been a bit of a bibliophile, so going into any sort of building filled to the brim with rows and rows of glorious writings gives me goosebumps, but there is something about Village Books that strikes me in ways no previous bookstore ever has. Perhaps it’s the fact that the locally owned establishment possesses a great deal of charming flare and character. Or maybe this small-town business is so stunning because it provides an opportunity to meet all kinds of wonderful people who love books just as much as you do.
Of all of Village Books’ stunning attributes, however, I think it was the warm atmosphere of friendly faces peeking out from behind the pages of anything from Margaret Wise Brown’s, “Goodnight, Moon,” to Yuval Noah Harari’s, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” that really had the most profound effect on me when I stepped into the store for the first time. I continue to be awed by this amiability even now, after spending many cumulative hours in the small-town business. In fact, it’s these very kind faces with such splendid variances of interest and thought that made me fall so blissfully in love with my newfound Bellingham home, and that friendliness and freedom (or should I say, “freadom?”) of thinking that is so commonplace in this remarkable Pacific Northwest town is only personified further within the tome-laden walls of Village Books.
The store itself seems to represent a microcosm of Bellingham. And you could even go as far as to say that it represents a microcosm of the world, as the books, each with unique thoughts and ideas contained therein, echo the vast range of individuality you can find not only in this seaside town, but in all of Earth’s splendid corners. That really is quite brilliant.
The works lining the shelves of Village Books, or any bookstore for that matter, truly do equate to something deeper than what first meets the eye. Not only are they delightful forms of entertainment, but they stand for a fascinating array of peculiarities exclusive to the individual work. When someone pulls a book off the shelf and begins to read, absorbing the knowledge and thoughts within it, this can affect their growth emotionally and intellectually. And the same can be said that no two people will take in the content of a book in the same manner. There could be a plethora of interpretations based on personal experiences, beliefs, and thought processes. That’s incredibly fascinating. Books are fascinating. And, more so than that, humans are fascinating. It was humans who wrote the works we read with such gusto, after all. And places like Village Books really come to show that shared thoughts can change a mind and shared books can change the world.