A Review of The Last Bookstore

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453 S Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA

Among the canyons of downtown Los Angeles on an autumn evening, the last remains of light fading to a monochrome blue against skyscrapers and sidewalk, the shadows turning black, the neon lights apoplectic up and down South Main Street. We’d only been in town for a few hours but we decided not to wait. I really wanted to make sure I crossed this bookshop off my bucket list, and when we turned the corner and saw the little red neon sign flowing in the distance, my steps quickened past panhandlers dancing to boomboxes on sidewalks as wide as streets in other cities. We were close, closer, and then we walked through the door, past the doorman keeping an eye on those coming and going, and into a vast open room sprawling out into other floors and wings and nooks, revealing one of the greatest bookstores I’ve ever stepped into.

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A Review of The Ripped Bodice

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3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA

We took the coastal highway south all along Big Sur, Morro Bay, and down through Malibu, heading to Los Angeles on a road trip we’d been planning for years. After a quick stop at the beach just outside the city, where we carefully edged down a steep trail to bask in the cold waters of the Pacific as houses clung to cliffs overhead, Amelia and I finally entered Los Angeles proper and headed to one very specific bookshop she was very excited to visit. Before the hotel, before we ate, before anything else, we wanted to see The Ripped Bodice, a shop renowned for celebrating all things romance. And wow, did we made the right choice.

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A Review of City Lights Bookstore

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261 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, CA

City Lights has loomed large in my literary memory for decades, and as far as bookshop hunting goes it has been a sort of great white whale for me, waiting out beyond the horizon for some future visit. Well, this autumn I finally had the opportunity to stop in and wander the same aisles so many of my early literary inspirations roamed and see the impressive space for myself. And what can I say about this shop that hasn’t already been said by countless others? It’s legendary for a reason, not the least of which their extensive, wide-reaching selection over multiple floors.

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A Bookshop Interview with Robert Vaughan

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I remember sharing a stage with Robert Vaughan in 2014, connected by our mutual friend Bud Smith at a reading hosted by the late-great Chuck Howe at Jimmy’s 43 in NYC. It was a fantastic night of poetry shop talk, travel stories, and drinks with far-flung friends, and that kind of poetic camaraderie is what I think of when I think of Robert Vaughan, who is one of the hosts for a workshop series called Bending Genres, as well as the author of the stunning poetry collection Askew (Cowboy Jamboree Press). You can find more info about Robert and his many projects and books at his website, but I asked him about his favorite bookshop and I’m not at all shocked by his answer. I was just there myself and I can attest, this is the place to be.

Favorite Bookshop: City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, CA

1. How did you discover the shop, and what do you remember about your first experience there?

I remember hearing about (reading about?) City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco way before I physically visited it in the middle 1980s. It had history, the Beat Poets, and the West Coast Avant Garde. I love its North Beach location, and turning on new friends to this motherlode.

2. Does the shop have a particular vibe, theme, or atmosphere that stands out?

The Vibe is somewhat hip, but filtered down since its essence, I mean how could a Bookstore that opened in 1953, not have morphed over the years? For a closer look at its rich history and why I adore it so much: https://citylights.com/our-story/bookstore-tour/

3. What books have you bought there in the past?

Anais Nin’s Journals, The Journal of Albion Moonlight by Kenneth Patchen, The Waves by Virginia Woolf, Kathy Acker books, Junky and Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, The Thief’s Journal by Jean Genet, Just Kids by Patti Smith, The Rainbow Stories by William Vollmann, Girl With The Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace, An Angel at My Table by Janet Frame, and many, many more!

4. What part of the shop would we find you hanging out in the most? 

The fiction is on the main floor, but I also love and revere the poetry room upstairs (used to be the basement), and the current basement, which houses CNF, and often has unknown or indie authors. Part of why I adore this bookstore is their unfailing support of all authors, famous or not.

Bookshop Interview with Kevin Ridgeway

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Photo borrowed from Elder Zamora's Portraits in Poetry, May, 2018.

Photo borrowed from Elder Zamora's Portraits in Poetry, May, 2018.

Kevin Ridgeway is a California poet with at least six books under his belt, and I’m sure plenty more coming. His latest is a split chapbook with Gabe Ricard called A Ludicrous Split and is well worth your time. Here he tells us a little about his favorite bookshop, one I very much need to visit myself one day. Enjoy!    

Favorite Bookshop: Gatsby Books (5535 E Spring Street, Long Beach, CA)

1. How did you discover the shop?

On November 28th, 2012, I was asked to do a featured reading by a local press at a growing literary hub in Long Beach, CA. It was Gatsby Books. I met Sean Richard Moor, the personable owner and master of ceremonies of every reading. I had finally found an independent book store to get chased out of for hanging around too long.

2. What part of the shop is your favorite?

My favorite part of the shop is the poetry section. It has a wide range of the greats--from local authors to the classics. I'm always browsing that shelf.

3. What books have you bought there in the past?

Hammer and the Hearts of Gods by Fred Voss, Poets and Pleasure Seekers by Gerald Locklin and The Early Death of Men by Clint Margrave are among the titles I've scored at Gatsby's.

4. What is it about Gatsby’s that makes you love it? What really sets it apart?

This place is a place where everybody knows your name. Ruby the Cat meows during readings and Fred Voss, Gerald Locklin and Joan Jobe Smith are regulars and personable yet brilliant scribes. And Sean Richard Moor is the glue that holds it all together. He also even sold my books. Whata guy. The best indie book store around.