Book Soup versus Skylight (They’re Both Amazing and Everyone Wins)
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.
