The fact of the matter is, when two things are this good, you don’t split hairs about varying degrees of good and better. It’s just a pointless exercise. That said, I had two VERY circumstantially different experiences in the two opposing indy bookstores, and so instead of doing my proposed East-side-Vs.-West-side battle of the bookies, I’m just going to talk about myself. (Because I’m self-indulgent, have no audience, and find myself fascinating.)
1.) Thursday night at Skylight Books: First of all, stepping out onto Vermont Ave. between Franklin and Hollywood felt just a little bit like coming home to me. I had officially resigned myself to being sans neighborhood (you know … real neighborhood) for the foreseeable future, and was thrilled (elated, excitied, happily flabergasted, I did a little clappity-dance) to find this very neighborhoody place so close (a short 10 blocks) from home.
When I walked into Skylight (after doing a quick two-blocks-in-each-direction sweep of the neighborhood), they were piping the Palin debates over the soundsystem, and the window display was COLOR CODED. All white books. (Note: On Friday, when I was back in the ‘hood to see a movie, the all-white window display had been swapped out for an all-orange one … silly happy lovely loveit).
Jonathan Ames was giving a reading — which would include no less than:
1. A printed handout of his balding pattern.
2. Several asides about how we shouldn’t shake his hand because he’s sick.
3. Two essay readings (including my all-time favorite: “I Shit My Pants in the South of France).
4. A brief Q&A session facilitated by nerdy, uber-fans (I’m just a normal fan … not like them at all).
5. Three Harrycalls (they sound like Chewbacca and are a little startling).
6. One signed book including disturbing doodle.
Over all impression: This is the kind of place that I could totally feel at home in — though the fact that you have to leave the store, walk a bit, and go in a separate entrance to get to the graphic novels, magazines, zines, and artsy books is a bit of a bummer. I left Skylight feeling like I’d found my little place in this big, L.A. world … but that was before I hit Book Soup.
2.) Saturday Night at Book Soup: First of all, there are a lot of contextual elements that predisposed this night to be better and therefore tipped the scales, making any unbiased review completely impossible. They are:
- I was going to see a reading by one of my favorite teachers from writing school, Joe Meno.(Yay, Joe!)
- It was Saturday night (hands down the best night of the week).
- Joe Tower (old college buddy) showed up and rocked my world by announcing that he, too, just moved to L.A.
- I drug my boyfriend along, so there wasn’t even a sliver of lonely in me.
Overall Impression: The reading was amazingly good (even if you discount my total bias) and the bookstore itself was slightly more inviting. The people who work there were friendlier — even encouraged me to go get a coffee across the street, “We don’t care if you bring it in, honest!” — than the slightly snobby Skylight staff (sorry guys, you weren’t horrid, but there was an air of nose-in-sky-ery).
So … there … that’s my first for real L.A. post. Hope it didn’t choke you with its shittiness.
