After being a bookseller and co-owner of Point Reyes Books in Northern California for nine years, Kate Levinson is adding the term “author” to her resume as she embarks on a lengthy tour to promote Emotional Currency: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Healthy Relationship With Money (Ten Speed/Celestial Arts, $14.99).
Levinson, who runs Point Reyes Books with her community activist husband Steve Costa, is keen to point out the value to other booksellers found in of the contents of Emotional Currency. “We’re in new territory today, and we don’t yet know how to remain vital as independent booksellers,” she says. “We need new financial paradigms. We can get scared and paralyzed in this business, and it’s important to look within for support. Emotional Currency provides the encouragement for booksellers to think outside the box and use our emotions to guide us through difficult times.”
Point Reyes Books opened in 2002 and carries both new and used books. “My husband and I always wanted to own a community-serving business, and we especially loved bookstores,” says Levinson, who has been a psychotherapist for 25 years in Oakland. “Our events program is active and very meaningful to the community we serve.” The store, located in Marin County near San Francisco, has played host to such luminaries as Colm Toibin, W.S. Merwin, Anne Lamott, and Michael Pollan, but also has a strong fundraising program for local non-profit organizations. The Tomales Bay Library Association, Heyday Books, and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust are but a few of the beneficiaries of Costa and Levinson’s outreach efforts. In addition, Point Reyes Books gives away 300 books, purchased by customers, to children every Christmas.
Being located in the Point Reyes National Seashore area, which draws a lot of tourists, is a boon to the bookstore. “We have two million visitors a year coming here. People come to hike, and end up attending our events,” Levinson says. “San Francisco is only 42 miles away, so we’re an easy destination point.” Point Reyes Books also organizes the annual Geography of Hope literary conference and film festival, and co-publishes the West Marin Review, a literary journal that now has three volumes in print.
As Levinson contemplates her new role as an author she is mindful of the challenges facing indie bookstores. “Our inheritance as book people is one of passion and love for our product, and for our business,” she says. “It’s essential now to continue to value those qualities. If all we’re looking at is the bottom line, we become more vulnerable in the marketplace. What we as booksellers face demands that we use our emotions, intuitions, and creativity – our whole intelligence.”
