A new Issaquah bookstore is placing a bet on community.

Lisa and Philip Boynton aren’t worried that digital books are now dominating the market, because they know bookstores still have a place in peoples’ lives.

The Issaquah couple opened Ravens Books this month with the hope of turning it into another hangout at Gilman Village.

“We both felt it was something Issaquah needed,” Lisa said.

Located in the former spot of Buddha Belly, they fanned out all the incense, and uncovered a bright back window that pours light into the children’s reading area.

Tall matching bookshelves are filled with a mix of old and new books, about 13,000 to start. Look up to find a stuffed raven that mysteriously finds a new home every few days.

The centerpiece of the shop is a large oval table, where they plan to host weekly book clubs, and even a board game night.

If the table is open, people are free to use it to host meetings, Lisa said.

The store has everything to offer from erotica novels to Bibles, and it has a digital catalog of all its stock, Philip said.

Customers come in to thumb through book spines in the science fiction section, when they catch a glance of an interesting cook book on display. Kids pull out colorful picture books onto the floor.

Shopping at a bookstore like Ravens is different than online, it’s a different type of search, Philip said.

“There is a tangible feel to a book where all your senses are being engaged,” he said. The Nook and Kindle aren’t killing the paper product.

The idea to open Ravens began four years ago, when Lisa was laid off from her job as a business analyst. She went back to school for a business degree.

Philip still works at T-Mobile as a project manager.

They both love to read, and decided a bookstore would be a perfect fit.

The name for the store stemmed from a long-time family debate over whether the birds in their backyard were ravens or crows.

Other than Ravens, Issaquah has a Barnes and Noble, and the Maple Leaf Book exchange, which specializes in used books. Ravens is a mix of new and lightly used.

Lisa and Philip Boynton opened Ravens Books earlier this month at Gilman Village.