Davis is not naive. With more and more power consolidating into the hands of a few chains, there's a smaller and smaller group of people deciding what we'll read. A cottonwood tree's hollowed trunk, for instance, provides the shop's centerpiece. Children can climb on it, over it or through it. Some prefer to just hunker down and read in it.
Sculpture is meant to be touched, especially by children.
Nearby, a simulated woodland waterfall provides another pastoral distraction. The rocks came from our house. Jackson and I found the trees in the woods. If Dragonwings doesn't look like any bookstore consumers have ever seen, its four-employee staff certainly don't behave like typical retailers either. They talk more about literacy than profit margins.