Headlands Books

Headlands Books has occupied its clapboard building on Main Street in Mendocino village since 1974, when the town was a haven for artists and back-to-the-landers fleeing the cities for the rugged beauty of the North Coast. The store has outlasted many of the era's utopian experiments, becoming one of the most enduring cultural institutions in Mendocino County. The California coastal ecology section is superb, covering the marine biology of the Mendocino coast's tide pools and kelp forests, the botany of the coastal bluffs, and the conservation challenges facing this fragile stretch of shoreline. The wine country literature collection reflects the growth of Anderson Valley and the broader Mendocino wine region, featuring vineyard memoirs, winemaking guides, and food writing that celebrates the area's farm-to-table culture. The North Coast arts shelf showcases the painters, poets, and craftspeople who have long been drawn to the area's extraordinary light and landscape. The rare books room holds first editions of California writers from Robinson Jeffers to Ursula K. Le Guin, who spent time on the Mendocino coast. On foggy afternoons, when the headlands disappear into mist, there is no better place to be than browsing the shelves of this remarkable store.