A hand-written note at the Cloud and Leaf sent me on my next journey: it mentioned the owner of the Cannon Beach Book Co who liked a book so much that she sold it while visiting the  nearby Manzanita bookstore.

In the touristier resort of Cannon Beach, the bookstore porch is welcoming and a “Beach reads” table greets the visitors.

Here, simple “Staff pick” labels do not give much away. The owners pride themselves on promoting local authors, so I spend some time in “Regional” section. The books are mostly documentary or non fiction. Two “Staff picks”. One, Comin’ in Over the Rock,  billed as “story telling of Cannon Beach”, seems like a gentle push for a hyper-local author. The other one, The Next Tsunami, Living on a Restless Coast, offers the powerful impact of a well-researched, serious, work. Yet the style fails to attract, so I ask for help, and we talk.

Any local-ish or overlooked author I should discover? Soon enough, I have five books in my hands. One emerges. I am warned: written by a man who teaches poetry, this is a “love it or hate it” book. As I flip through the pages, I fall in love with the concise, evocative, style. “Oh, and there is a raven that talks in it, but it is linked to the story of the land, so it really makes perfect sense”, she adds. That does it.

Brian Doyle’s Mink River will travel with me. And I just love the paperbag it is wrapped in.

Time to go browse at Cannon Beach’s other bookstore: I am on my way to nearby Jupiter Books in my quest for Tournier’s Midnight Love Feast, which I will most likely find at a place that, like this one, specializes in “rare and used” books.

And then, the unthinkable, as I hear the lament of another book lover reaching its door: it is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

I am left staring at the window, and its many interesting and eclectic choices, including an old copy of Seven League Boots.

I take that as my cue to exit, and leave Cannon Beach, its lovely bookstores, but also its permeating smell of fried foods and multi-flavored salt water taffies.