Gallery Bookshop was established in 1962 in Mendocino's historic Jarvis-Nichols Building. At that time, the shop featured paintings and prints by local artists along with its fine selection of books. Original owner Marvel Glynn sold the store to Betty Goodman, a local actress and patron of the arts, who in 1980 sold it to Tony Miksak. In 1988, Tony opened  Bookwinkle's Children's Books, the first children's bookstore in Mendocino County, at the corner of Albion and Kasten streets in Mendocino. When Gallery Bookshop expanded into its current space in 1993, Bookwinkle's moved too, to share the new location and the store name. In 2006, the store was purchased by current owner Christie Olson Day.

Today, Gallery Bookshop & Bookwinkle's Children's Books serves local residents and visitors from around the world with an extensive inventory of current and relevant titles, plus a large selection of eclectic volumes not likely to be found online or at any urban mega-store. Honoring our local heritage on California’s north coast, Gallery Bookshop and Bookwinkle’s Children’s Books prominently features sections on local history, logging, ocean life, wine country, mushrooms, marijuana culture, the arts, and books and gift items by local authors and artists.