Further proof Santa Monica ain't what it used to be
Not too long after I graduated college, I stopped at the library, photocopied the used bookstore pages from the West Los Angeles-Beach Communities yellow pages and drove to Santa Monica where, I had been told, a bibliophile's paradise awaited.
And indeed it did. On the Third Street Promenade, there were at least half a dozen bookstores, none of which were named Borders or Barnes and Noble. New books were only available at Hennesy and Ingles, which has since been priced out of the promenade and onto Wilshire, and Midnight Special, which has since been priced out of the promenade and into oblivion.
On that first trip, I ended up filling the trunk of my car with books and racking up about a thousand bucks on my credit card bill.
Needless to say, the booksellers loved me.
These days, the promenade is filled with the same chain shops which dominate every high-end mall. No more animation cell store, no more pesto postcards, no more used CDs. And that nice Italian place at Arizona? You do know that it also has an outpost at the Grove, don't you? (Although, despite having matching menus, if not names, the food at the Grove location is rather bad).
So I was rather excited to see Kulturas, a new bookstore in Sunset Park, attempt to open an outpost on 4th Street. Unfortunately, the experiment in expanding their base turned out to be a failure. About a month after I first spotted them on 4th street, the moving sale signs went up and last week the store was emptied. I guess there will never again be quite the bibliophile zone on the west side that there once was.
NP: "Fresh Air 11-20-2007."
7 comments:
Since bookstores in Santa Monica took a nose dive its been hard to find eacs access to cheap or rare books in L.A.
You have any ideas on where some good places are around town?
There are still some of the old places around town: Some of the bookshops on 3rd and on Beverly in BeverlyGrove are still around. Likewise Sam: Johnson is still up and running on Venice and there's Gene de Chene on SMB. I've been thinking, though that it may be worth doing a recurring feature on bookstores of the west side whose names aren't Borders or Barnes and Noble. I'll try and do at least one a month starting sometime not too far in the future.
Kultura left a great location in the most trendy neighborhood of washington dc, Dupont Circle. In Dupont, it was only 500 feet from a metro station and 1/4 mile from not one, but four other bookstores, including the legendary Kramer books. A barnes and noble style big box store was the fourth, that finally drove them west. It breaks my heart that they couldn't survive hear, both because I feel bad for the owners and because I feel bad that LA residents don't patronize stores like Kultura
They still have their Sunset Park location. It was just the downtown location that didn't quite make it. Perhaps I should make Kultura number one on my survey of westside book shops, so I can get the full story.
Hi... I am coming to LA & Santa Monica from London in 5 weeks and desperate to find some lovely independant bookstores in the area open for evening browsing... I desperately want to avoid the chains but I do want to stock up on some American authors that I can't get here in the UK unless I use Amazon which I'd rather not do... can you recommend bookshops? I'll be staying in Santa Monica at Shutters, spending a couple of days shopping in LA itself, and then taking the car and surfboards along the coast... any great bookstores you can recommend would be much appreciated... i'll be glad to return the favour and let you know about the best bookstores in London if you're ever over... Thanks so much, Sarah
Are you looking for new or used books. There's not a lot of indie bookselling happening on the new end on the west side any more between the demise of Dawson's and Midnight Special. I would suggest getting to Book Soup at 8818 Sunset in West Hollywood and Skylight Books at 1818 N Vermont in Los Feliz (Los Angeles).
For used books, a lot really depends on your particular interests, but there are still a number of great used book stores all over the place. The Kultura shop on Ocean Park Blvd in Santa Monica isn't a bad starting point. If you let me know a bit more, I can give some more specific recommendations (and I'll even make a new blog post for you).
Arcana, on the Promenade, is great if you're interested in art, as is Hennessy & Ingalls (just off the Promenade).
Post a Comment