Two pre-teen brothers, whose hair matches the yellow flames on their soccer uniforms, are staring intently at their battlefield. Though it is one of the last sunny days of fall, playing games outside seems to be the last thing on their minds. Instead they concentrate on their soldiers— knights, bishops and queens. Each wooden piece is standing as high as the boys, who are wading through the giant chessboard on their knees.

The older brother, crawling on his shin guards over the eight-foot chessboard, hoists his white knight in the air and carries the piece five feet to a black square. Check. Before his opponent can make a move, however, an outside force enters the game. “Time to go,” says their grandmother. The war generals leave. Game over.

The giant chessboard at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park is situated between the bookstore and a food court. At one of the surrounding tables in the food court, a three-year-old named Erik is spinning his head around like a sprinkler, trying to smile in every direction at the same time. His mother, Kerri, won’t let her son play chess.

“That’s a big thing for him,” she says as she watches him with a smile of her own. “We’re not supposed to bang the chess pieces around; we try to be gentle, don’t we?”

Incessant conversation fills the air around Third Place Books. Though it is the largest bookstore in Lake Forest Park, most of the people here aren’t reading. Some are sucked into their laptops, sipping coffee. Others are stealing glances at their children as they read the newest Glamour. In the gigantic food court everyone is eating. And it is loud.

The nonstop activity at Third Place is exactly what the Ron Sher, who transformed the Lake Forest Park Mall into the bookstore, envisioned. Sher’s vision for Third Place included the creation of a massive open space out of the first floor— a welcoming space that included a bookstore, food court and seating areas. Together, these different establishments operate next to each other and under one roof as one whole— Third Place Books. When its regulars refer to Third Place, they are not actually referring to a store but rather the entire first floor, in which the rows of books are directly next to food vendors.

“I wanted to create a place to elevate the human spirit, to create a physical structure where people would come together, to interact and not be alienated,” he told the Seattle Times when Third Place Books opened in 1998.

Third Place Books is named after an idea expressed by Ray Oldenburg in his book “The Great Good Place.” Oldenburg details the decline of gathering places in contemporary culture.

“The third place in our lives is really where we go when we’re not at home or work,” says Third Place Books Manager Robert Sindelar. “(It’s) where we go to be around other people, to exchange ideas, to be challenged and to express ourselves.

“On a very basic level, this is a very large gathering area,” he says. “A lot of people come just to see what’s happening— they don’t even check the calendar.” Sindelar believes that third places are alternatives to government funded community centers.

The problem with community centers, he says, is that “the only activities that happen demand participation. You go, you show up and you are putting yourself out there. We feel that one of the things that’s really important about a third place is that there's no requirement -- you can show up and you are a part of what’s happening.”

The neon lights of the food court are lighting the Third Place’s 2 p.m. crowd. There's a softer hum of activity on this Friday fall afternoon; the cloudy weather has relaxed the atmosphere in Third Place Books since last Saturday.

The biggest, and only, crowd right now is at Honey Bear Bakery. It’s not lunch time and not quite time for dinner yet, but it doesn’t matter. Honey Bear Bakery's food is made to be eaten at any time.

Honey Bear Bakery is one of the restaurants in the Third Place’s food court. It is not a separate building or attraction— it is inside Third Place Books and is as much a part of the atmosphere as the actual book store section.

“A lot of people like the coconut white chocolate cake… but it’s gone,” laughs Camille from behind the cake display. She searches for the next best cake. Her frown tells her customer that the sold-out cake really is the best.

“Oh! Here’s one!” she says and jumps towards a single slice at the end of the display.

The cake is beautiful.

“Everyone comes in and they get this gleam. They want ‘coconut white chocolate!’” she says as she imitates her regulars.

The slice boasts coconut on top of coconut. Frosting on top of more coconut shavings. And the chocolate is perfect. Anyone who has this cake will instantly understand the ‘coconut white chocolate gleam.’

Next to Honey Bear Bakery is a table that has been cut directly out of a tree. It is unfinished, unpainted and raw. This is where the “gleamers” eat. This massive table seats 20 people and is one of the attractions that make Third Place Books a third place, Sindelar says.

This table is always the quickest to fill up, he points out proudly, but big groups don’t usually find space here. Instead, regulars run into other regulars at this table and congregate in the center of the entire open space that is Third Place Books. He says that this table is what Third Place Books is all about:

“When that table fills up all on its own— not with a large group but with individuals, people who didn’t come together end up being together, talking together and getting to know each other.”