It’s light and airy, with plenty of space between shelves for good browsing.

Fresh gourmet coffee is in the pot, piping hot from Camano Island Coffee Roasters, and Fred Astaire, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday and Bessie Smith are always ready to set that laid back mood over the PA system. There’s a comfy assortment of couches and chairs on which to read, chat and take it all in.

But a rumor going around says Finally Found Books at 3705 Auburn Way N. is about to close shop.

Not so, says owner Todd Hulbert.

Yes, his store’s for sale. But chill out, book lovers — it’s not going anywhere.

“The scoop is that the bookstore’s going to remain, it’s profitable. It can make a reasonably good living for somebody. It’s just that there’s lots of opportunities out there, and for me, sitting behind a desk isn’t where I want to be,” Hulbert says.

Hulbert pauses, looks out beyond the desk to the four to five customers browsing the wares just before closing time, then picks up the thread.

“Business is OK. I mean, it’s not a business anybody’s ever going to get wealthy on. It would provide for the right person. For me personally, there’s a lot better opportunities for me to make money, and I’m not getting any younger. I need some retirement,” Hulbert said.

Hulbert opened up at the site next to Nielsen Brothers Flooring in August of 2013 because the store’s first site in Black Diamond, just down the street from the famed Black Diamond Bakery, was too far off the beaten path to make a go of it, despite truly heroic efforts.

“The bookstore in Black Diamond had been there for 18 years,” Hulbert said. “The previous owner actually closed it up. I went in … and wanted to reopen the store there and give it a try. We spent a year and a half in that building prior to moving to Auburn. When I started looking for a building, I was trying to find the best market location. We figured that being down here in the valley, somewhere between Kent and Auburn, would give us a great locale.”

Before getting into the book business, Hulbert worked for 15 years in online commerce.

About 5 percent of the store’s inventory is new, from new best sellers to “stuff from a multitude of local authors,” Hulbert said. The total inventory, including what’s in the warehouse, is about 120,000 books, making it one of the area’s larger collections.

Finally Found Books offers a lot of events — author signings, children’s days and poetry readings, to cite only the title page.

“We also bring in art from local artists on a rotating basis. We work with a lot of local authors and various things like that,” Hulbert said. “People love the store. People were originally worried it was going to move, and I just had to reassure everybody that the bookstore isn’t going anywhere. I just need to find someone else that wants to run it. If I don’t find that person now, I’ll keep sitting here until I do. Eventually, somebody will come along.

“… It’s not a bad location. What’s a good location? I mean, if I were in the center of Southcenter Mall, that would be a good location. But rent for a space in the Southcenter Mall would probably run about $30,000 a month. The rents there are just too high.”

Finally Found Books is a member of the American Booksellers’ Association.