Sir Francis Bacon said, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

If that’s true, Orcas Book Exchange is for the healthy appetite. For people who surround themselves with books, consuming them like daily meals, there is never-ending sustenance on the floor-to-ceiling shelves of the newest bookstore in Eastsound.

Owners Doug and Ida Rae McDonald have been selling books for 43 years and started doing business at Orcas Book Exchange in March.

“The book business is about the five Bs,” Doug said.

Doug refers to the places people where people like to read: in bed, in the bath, on their boat, at the beach, and on the bus. The McDonalds have focused their used book inventory on the mass market paperbacks people on-the-go prefer.

Orcas Book Exchange specializes in quantity and variety of titles. In their storeroom, the McDonalds have towers of backstock stacked as tall as the average person. The books span every interest and genre.

Ida Rae said, “This isn’t even the half of it.”

The wide variety carried by Orcas Book Exchange inspires the reader to scour the shelves for a specific title, to collect every book by a favorite author, or explore something never tried before like a vampire mystery or a turn of the century classic. Trying something new to read is accessible at Orcas Book Exchange because used books are the most affordable. Orcas Book Exchange also gives trade credit for books brought to them, which is generally 60 percent off used book purchases.

Doug said, “People get their best buy with store credit.”

Orcas Book Exchange also rents VHS and some DVD movies. For a dollar each per week, customers can rent their favorite movie or a slew of musicals for their teenager’s sleepover.

Also the authors of two regional ski guides published in the 60s, the McDonalds opened their first book exchange in Bellevue in 1972 followed by stores in Redmond and Kirkland.

When asked what has changed in the book business over time, store manager Kim Rose cited the newest retail mode.

“The internet is the biggest change for the book business,” Rose said.

The Orcas Book Exchange currently has over 2,000 titles available for purchase on amazon.com and they are continually adding more. A virtual storefront allows them to reach customers all over the globe, but they still like to meet and greet the Orcas public.

Centrally located next to The Nest in Eastsound, the bookstore brings in a lot of out of town shoppers in addition to their local customer base. Rose and the McDonalds act as ambassadors of Orcas Island to tourists who pick up postcards, maps, island collectibles, and visitors’ information with their books.

Doug says a question commonly asked is, “Where’s the supermarket?”

With an inexhaustible inventory of reading material passed from one reader to the next over decades, Orcas Book Exchange provides reads for the bed, bath, beach, boat, or bus.