FAQs

1) Why “Three Trees Books” instead of “Three Tree Books” or “Three Tree’s Books”?

This is one of the most common questions our Seahurst and Three Tree Point neighbors have asked. 

As newer residents Tim and I can understand why people might be protective of their neighborhood name, and worried that we didn’t understand that it’s “Three Tree” (singular) when we came up with our store name (especially given the enduring mental anguish we all suffer when people call Pike Place Market “Pike’s Place”). But I promise we did know!

The thinking went like this: we live near a gorgeous place called Three Tree Point and we wanted to honor that. We also wanted our name to convey the real-world “you can touch it and hold it and keep it forever” nature of printed books. 

Opening a bookstore in our digital age is a little bit crazy. But we want to read real books, in the real world, and we think there are more of us out there. So we baked in the idea that books that we can hold and keep come from trees.

So in summary, we wanted to pay homage to the beautiful place (Three Tree Point”) and the origin of real life, hold-in-your-hands books (trees), to create a bookstore name that combines the two in a simple way.


2) When are you starting a book club?

The Three Trees Book Club will launch at the end of March 2019. We are hosting an open house event (combo “welcome Spring!” and “join our book club" party) on March 30th. There will be food and drinks and books!  The book club itself will be both virtual (a Facebook group) and real-world. So you can join the conversation online or join us for monthly book club discussion in person at the shop (or both). 

We are waiting until late March for better weather. The shop is small, so for the launch party we wanted to be able to keep the door wide open and set out all our tables and chairs out front.


3) I signed up for the Monthly Dispatch newsletter. Why haven’t I received any emails yet? 

You will! Tim and I are super duper anti-spam people, so we are waiting to have a lot of things to tell you before we jam your inbox with bookstore news. But we have your email (safe and sound) and will send you a dispatch very soon to announce the Book Club launch party, hot new books, and other events we have in the works.


4) How did you curate your book collection?

There are short and long answers to this question. Here’s the long answer:

Our original vision (that we mulled over for many years) was to be a genre-specific book store - it was going to be called “For Crying Out Loud” and we were going to focus entirely on (high quality) self-help and how-to books - business, cooking, gardening, spirit, health, love, family, habits, etc.

When we found our perfect tiny space next to the Seahurst Post Office late last year our plan shifted. 

We took a look around and realized that there wasn’t a new bookstore nearby. We’ve been told that there were wonderful bookstores in the past (Burien Books, Bumbershoot Books), but they were gone. The Barnes and Noble had just closed down in Westwood Village, too. We (luckily) have the wonderful Page 2 Books, but we felt there might be a need for an Amazon-alternative. A place to share favorite books and influence what the store focuses on over time. 

In other words, we wanted to open a new book store that will evolve with its customers’ wants and interests.

But how did we pick the initial shop inventory?

We joined the ABA and PNBA (indie bookseller organizations), and researched like crazy. We decided to focus on carrying the most beloved PNW indie bookstore bestsellers - paperback and hardcover. Then we dipped our toes into Children’s, YA, Mysteries, Thrillers, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, recent “classic” fiction and non-fiction, Self-Help (the good ones), Home, Garden and — of course - Cooking. With a sprinkling of Tim’s and my favorite books in each genre.

We are always ordering books based on customer feedback and new releases. We plan to grow our non-book stock very soon - including Paddywax candles, Papercuts card game (cards against humanity for book lovers), Compendium journals and Grace Gow jewelry. For now we carry Fog Linen Work Aprons, The Suburban Monk “Syd”, and Emily McDowell greeting cards and journals.

And, finally, we can order any book you want and have it delivered directly to you - overnight, 2-day, 3-day, etc. We are just like Amazon, except local!


5) Will you ever have a Grand Opening party???

Ha! We have heard this one a lot. We opened quietly on Super Bowl Sunday, then the snowstorm/s hit, so we haven’t really felt like it was the right time to have a big party. Our plan now is to combine our belated Grand Opening party with our Three Trees Book Club launch Open House on the afternoon of Saturday, March 30th. We’re hoping the weather will be better so we can have lots of people milling about indoors and out.