Village Books in Fairhaven is the kind of independent bookstore that makes people move to a city. Operating since 1980, it occupies a handsome historic building on Fairhaven's Village Green and stocks an excellent selection of Pacific Northwest titles, fiction, history, and children's books alongside the usual range. The staff recommendations are thoughtful and the events programme — author readings, book clubs, community discussions — is genuinely active.
The store has an attached café (Paper Dreams) and a basement section that wanders through shelves of secondhand and bargain books. It's an easy hour or two, and the surrounding Fairhaven streets are worth exploring before or after. Village Books has survived the consolidation of bookselling that closed many comparable stores and remains financially healthy, which says something about the loyalty of its customers.