Background of Toyon Books

Toyon Books is an independent bookseller located in the heart of the Sonoma County wine growing region of Northern California. The charming town of Healdsburg has been the home of Toyon Books since 1986 when Martha Dwyer founded the store. The historic plaza, a one block grassy square with beautiful old trees, is right across the street. In the summer, people enjoy free outside concerts staged on the plaza gazebo. The square is also the home to other entertaining events such as antique fairs, beer and sausage tasting, and a chili cook-off. Check the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce for more information.

Toyon Books is a full service bookstore selling both new and used books. We have a staff of eight people with a wide range of reading tastes and a consistent attitude of sharing our knowledge. We value the experience of reading for both its entertainment value and its ability to impart knowledge, and potential to initiate personal transformation. Our store was one of the first to offer extended staff recommendations and reviews that most of our customers find very useful. Throughout the store, shoppers can find our staff recommendation forms dangling from shelves and stuffed into favorite books. These book reviews are like little signposts to good reading. Each member of our staff has his or her own page of book recommendations and reviews as a part of this website. You're welcomed and encouraged to see my own at Martha's Book Recommendation. Another well-loved attribute of the store is our long time resident kitty, Dorothy. See Dorothy's Book Recommendations. Some customers come in regularly just to visit her. Others have brought her presents.

What is a "Toyon?"

We often are asked "What's a Toyon?" Searching for a name with local resonance, the California native shrub toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) came to the fore. An essential feature of the landscape for Native Americans because of its value as a food and medicine, the plant is quite beautiful with dark green shiny foliage and red berries in the fall, giving it the nickname California Holly. The logo was designed by Patti Buttitta Designs of Healdsburg.

Why shop at an independent bookseller?

Toyon Books is fortunate to be located in a town where the quality of life is so obviously valued. A sense of community is fostered by the support that is given to locally owned businesses as opposed to absentee owned chain stores. The community recognizes the economic advantages that a locally owned store offers. Benefits such as the retention of sales tax, which though often seen as a nuisance, is indeed our country's agreed upon method of providing for the needs of the common welfare-services like fire protection, parks, police. When we spend locally, a portion of the taxes stays local. Secondly, the locally owned business spends its dollars locally. In other words, when we need printing, sign-making, or cabinet-making services, we get them from our own community. Our corporate headquarters are not on the other side of the country making these decisions. And thirdly, local businesses support local non-profit groups. For instance, we support local organizations by offering for sale performance tickets for most of the events at the Healdsburg Community Church and at the Raven Theater run by Healdsburg Performing Arts Theater. The following is a list of the regularly supported non-profit groups which depend on Toyon (and others) to keep them going.

In addition to supporting the community financially by shopping at an independent bookstore, we and most of our customers believe strongly in the inherent value of the independent booksellers of the world. Bookselling is a business of ideas. Ideas thrive on diversity and creativity. Jeffersonian ideals of anti-monopoly democracy are most aptly applied to all businesses, but most especially to that of books. For more discussion of the issues of independent booksellers, see the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association website.