Time & Again: Vashon Bookshops

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Carrie Van Buren, who became the new owner of Vashon Bookshop last year is surrounded by the books she loves. She has a soft spot in her heart for books and for all of us who share that love.

She told Phil Clapham, when he wrote about the bookshop, that “People want tangible things in their hands. They want the smell of a book, the sound of turning the pages.” Vashon has a long history of bookshops and book lovers.

The first known bookshop on the island was at Camp Burton in the 1910s. There is a photograph of the A.B.P.S. (American Baptist Publication Society) bookshop and the auditorium. While this was not a year-round bookstore, it represents the importance of books to the newly developing Vashon community.

Libraries, which also have an interesting history, reflect how important books and reading were — and still are — to Vashon residents.

There does not appear to have been another bookstore on the island until after World War II. Mac’s Book Store in Vashon Town sold a combination of books, games and toys in the 1950s, but that is all we know about Mac’s.

In 1963, two Burton women who had worked together on a PTA book project the year before opened Quartermaster Bookshop. Both Grace Burton and June Ross had experience as librarians. June Ross commented, “Our stock will be limited,” but “our ordering service will be our long suit.” They also planned to sell fine greeting cards, gift wrap and small gift items. Quartermaster Bookshop was only in business for about five years, but it represented the growing interest in — and need for — a bookstore on Vashon.

Over the next several decades, bookstores came and went on the island. Vivian Conant opened Books By The Way on Oct. 26, 1972, and it became Vashon’s longest-running bookstore, operating in different locations and under different ownership for 38 years until it closed in 2011. During those nearly four decades, Page 1 Bookstore (1968-76), The Last Word Bookshop (1976-79), Pegasus/Phoenix Books (1984-86), Awakening Field Books (1988-91), Tramp Harbor Book Company (1989-90), Illuminations (1992-93), LIMUS (1992-93), It’s a Mystery to Me (1995-97), The Bookmonger (1997-2001), Tangled Ribbon Bookstore & Gallery (1998-2000) and Stranger Than Fiction (2008-11) all opened and lasted only a few years each.

Vivian Conant came to Vashon in 1962 and in 1964 became the Vashon Elementary School librarian. Vivian opened Books By The Way with her son Craig and his wife, Sandy, in the old Fuller Store. Craig and Sandy lived above the store, and Craig taught piano lessons in a studio off the kitchen.

In 1976, Lawrence Ferlinghetti gave a reading at the bookstore while visiting his friend Jakk Corsaw at the Portage Store. Vivian’s son Kimball, a musician living in Seattle and active in the city’s music scene, recalled that “Books By The Way held a prominent place as Vashon’s only bookstore during its time.”

The Fuller Store location, away from the retail core in Vashon Town, was not ideal for a bookstore, and in 1978 Vivian moved Books By The Way to the former Rand Realty building. Books By The Way was purchased by Martha Scharpf in 1985. She moved the store several times before relocating it to the space where the Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union is now located. Scharpf sold the bookstore to Susan Montoya in 1994, and Susan, working with Juli Morser, began offering a series of very popular and well-attended author readings, bringing in noted Northwest authors.

Jan and Charlie Peterson purchased Books By The Way in 2003 and continued to offer programs and services until they sold it in 2007 to Jenni and Dave Wilke. The Wilkes added an emphasis on children’s books and, in 2010, relocated next to Café Luna, with a connecting door to create a bookstore-café atmosphere. In 2011, they finally closed Books By The Way after an amazing 38-year run.

The current Vashon Bookshop opened in 2001 and seems destined to equal or exceed Books By The Way’s longevity. Karen Barringer opened Vashon Bookshop in 2001. Nancy Katika, who began working at the bookstore in 2004, became a co-owner in 2007 and, in 2011, Morgan Guion became co-owner with Nancy.

Morgan left the store in 2013, and Nancy became the sole owner. When Nancy decided to retire in 2025, she sold the bookstore to Carrie Van Buren, who had been an employee since 2015. During Nancy’s quarter-century with the bookstore, she developed an amazing collection of Vashon books, both about Vashon and by Vashon authors.

The shop regularly sponsors book launches and readings and has encouraged readers and writers in every way possible. Vashon is fortunate to have a vibrant, thriving, locally owned independent bookstore.

Two other bookstores are on the island in 2026. Casey DeLoach opened Bookmen West in the Fuller Store in 2013 with Randy Barnes. Both were avid collectors of rare books and both had dabbled in selling books online and in established bookstores. Bookmen West focuses on antique, rare, collectible and signed books.

It is still in business but moved across the street into the Minglement building in 2015. Randy left the business shortly after the move, but Casey still offers an eclectic collection of used books.

The second of these island bookstores is hidden away in the former VFW Hall along Vashon Highway near the top of Morgan Hill. Vashon Island Books, opened in 2002 by Derek Smith, is largely an online store. It originally opened in a warehouse near the north end of the island and moved into the VFW Hall in 2010. The business focuses on used, rare, first-edition and out-of-print books.

Books have always been important to islanders, but it took until after World War II for the island to support a bookstore, and even then there tended to be only one significant, long-lived bookstore at a time.

We currently have three bookstores on the island. Two focus on used and collectible books, and one is a full-service independent bookstore, which is a growing rarity in the Amazon age.

I find it reassuring to see how important books are — and have been — to the Vashon community, and how, over the last hundred years, bookshops have evolved and changed to reflect our evolving and changing community.

Bruce Haulman is an island historian. Terry Donnelly is an island photographer. This article is part of their ongoing “Time & Again” series, which explores island history in The Beachcomber.