By Teresa Hidalgo Dance
When some businesses were shuttering or downsizing at the height of the covid pandemic, Gary Butler and Denise Silva quietly opened a bookstore in Pleasure Point close to Capitola. Was it a brazen, foolhardy move? Hardly. Just two years later, in 2022, Publishers Weekly, a respected trade journal, chose Two Birds Books as one of the five best bookstores across the country partly to recognize its owners’ dedication to running a bookstore against such odds.
Owners Gary Butler and Denise Silva
It’s been both an easy and hard road, Butler and Silva attest.
“Opening during the pandemic brought many challenges, but we had strong support from the community from day one,” said Butler.
Two Birds Books has kept its doors open by accommodating book-buying trends that buck long-ago predictions that print would be swallowed up by the digital age.
Butler said, “There’s still a strong desire for browsing and owning physical books, and the happy accident of finding the perfect book tucked away on the shelves.”
With only 900 square feet of available space, the bookstore owners have to be choosy about what to carry. They are known for their thoughtful curation of new and used books for all ages, giving special attention to their nature, sci-fi, and fantasy sections. For sale, too, are unique greeting cards and gift items, many of which are from local makers.
“We try to have a little something for everyone, and to reflect the interests and tastes of our neighborhood,” said Silva.
Both lifelong book lovers and bookstore haunters, Butler and Silva think indie bookstores are worth fighting for.
“Small, local independent bookstores reflect their community better than a national company which is stuck with the corporate representation of what they feel a bookstore should be,” said Butler. “When you walk into these big companies’ bookstores in San Jose or rural Alabama, you’ll find they both sell the same titles.”
For all the drama that opening during a pandemic brought, at the end of the day, Two Birds Books was meant to simply be a nurturing nook in the community where readers could find meaningful experiences in books.
“Being a democratic, welcoming space is a big priority for us,” said Silva. “We want to be a safe haven. We want to be a source of inspiration and community and connection.”
Supporting local authors is big with Butler and Silva.
“We carry local well-known Santa Cruz writers like Jonathan Franzen, Elizabeth McKenzie, and Karen Joy Fowler,” said Butler.
They also offer a consignment program for local authors who don’t have national recognition or are published on a smaller scale.
Two Birds Books was named after two ravens that stood watch during their engagement ten years ago.
“We see the ravens as good luck,” said Butler. “They’re like little mascots for us.”
Good fortune may have played a part in the bookstore’s success but there is also the owners’ passion for books and authors. They strive to be inclusive of everyone’s stories and literary tastes, not just their personal preferences. Butler has also been known to acquire a book just because he thought a particular customer might like to have it. Such personalized service and recommendations are a hallmark of the mom-and-pop shop.
To top it off, Two Birds Books is dog-friendly with its owners very supportive of animal rescue.
Butler and Silva look forward to celebrating the third anniversary of Two Birds Books on Dec. 10 and 11 with a sale (half off their entire inventory of used books), raffle, and special giveaways. They have high hopes that they will be around for as long as people love books.
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Two Birds Books is at 881 41st Ave. and can be found online at www.twobirdsbooks.com and @twobirdsbooks on Facebook and Instagram.