FollowSoundpeace, located in downtown Ashland next to Zoey’s Café and all Natural Ice Cream and across from the historic Ashland Springs Hotel, is the home of spiritual books and gifts for all types of people. Soundpeace specializes in books concerning personal growth and spirituality but not limited to just books. They have jewelry, candles, prayer flags and even incense.
I had the opportunity to speak with Steve, the owner of the shop and he provided me with mountains of information on their book selection and his love of the book business. Steve’s love of books started when he was young and continued as he ventured into the book business. Steve has owned Soundpeace since 1991, five years after it was established in 1986. He enjoys ordering books and handling new books as they come in: “It’s like Christmas,” he says in a calm and quiet voice, but not completely concealing his true passion for his career in books.
A question that I asked all the bookstores around Ashland was their thought on the future of traditional, paper copies of books in the age of the kindle and Amazon ebooks. He informed me that customers ask if Soundpeace is a showroom for Amazon. His store, through the age of technology, has remained traditional in their selling and buying books. Steve believes the shift in the way people buy books, over the Internet for example, could alter the fate of books. Books could someday become collector items, outdated pieces of history that technology has replaced.
Soundpeace is a wonderful bookstore and gift shop. The people are pleasantly friendly but not fake or overpowering. The selection is directed to a specific genre of readers but vast in what they provide. If you haven’t stopped into Soundpeace, make it a priority in the very near future; it’s not an Ashland location that you want to miss out on!
