A Central California Bookshop Tour: Visiting Columbia Booksellers and Variety Store
From the Editor’s Desk
The next stop on our bookshop tour took us to Columbia State Park.
After a couple of hours of meandering here and there around the park and enjoying a not-too-expensive meal at St Charles Saloon, we found ourselves at Columbia Booksellers and Variety Store at 22725 Main Street in Columbia.
I spent a few days in Columbia a few years ago, but I do not remember this shop.
As I wandered in, I was delighted to see those old friends I wrote about last week, the classics, and their beautiful bindings, around the shop. There was a history section and a literature section, but down the center of the rectangular-shaped store were all things “Little House on the Prairie.”
I did not grow up with The Little House on the Prairie.
There was a passing knowledge of the television show in my household, but we never watched it to my recollection. It was only as an adult with children that I encountered the books after hearing numerous recommendations. And I loved them! Laura Ingalls Wilder transports the reader to another time place, minutely reviewing the steps of the tasks they were about, creating a strong sense of time, place and person. The characters have their flaws. There are prejudices to be addressed when reading with children. Books become a safe opportunity to talk about big issues without the heaviness of first encountering those issues in person.
Wilder writes so well. The language, deceptively simple and accessible, is rich and varied. For as much as I enjoyed reading the books and revisiting The Long Winter in particular from time to time, the audiobooks narrated by Cherry Jones are priceless.
Back in Columbia Booksellers and Variety Store, here were bonnets for ladies and bowlers for men and books of plenty. I quickly snatched up A Little House Christmas Treasury: Festive Holiday Stories and The Little House Cookbook.
At the end of the display were photocopies of ephemera, various “Wanted” posters organized by criminals, but also, for $1.25, an issue of the Columbia Gazette from 1853 and not just any issue in 1853 but December 3, 1853, which puts it pretty near the day we were traveling and visiting the State Park.
How fun to compare their weekly edition to ours! There is a certain familiarity with the reader with which the writers used language. It was delightful to read about the local events, both jovial, festive and more hard news, if you will.
If all that was not enough for the tiny shop, while making my purchase, I got to know Rosanna, the president of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, who told me about an exciting event coming up in June involving “The Little House on the Prairie.” Details are still being finalized, but I look forward to revealing more as the news rolls out.
The shop is also a variety store, and there were gifts and goods to make for pleasant browsing for the less bookish types in our party. Still, I most enjoyed the curated nature of the collection and the knowledge of the proprietor who could tell me the many places where “Little House on the Prairie” was filmed in a near Columbia, with whom I could delight about the old films that were filmed there including “High Noon” at the Wilson/McConnell House. I'm a social person, so this opportunity to learn more about a town and enjoy a bit of conversation is a delight for me.
Next, we will stop at Barnes & Noble for a gift pick-up.
Used with permission from the January 14 edition of the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch. An annual subscription to this print-only newspaper is $89. To subscribe to the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch, call 209-358-5311.