Yesterday, my friend Steve Ekins and I visited The Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles, a massive store at 5th & Spring Street. They are the largest independent bookstore in California buying and selling used & new books and records. According to their web site, "the name (The Last Bookstore) was chosen with irony, but it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy as physical bookstores are dying out like dinosaurs from the meteoric impact of Amazon and e-books. With our constant turnover of stock, regular musical and literary events, and coffee and vinyl LP shop, we book-lovers at the Last Bookstore hope to last as long as we can in downtown LA’s vibrant new community." I walked around in astonishment, taking pictures and looking at books, artwork, and records.
Here is the exterior/entrance. Downtown LA is full of beautiful/ornate buildings like this one.
The view from the second floor balcony. Steve is the little guy in the red shirt to the left.
Throughout the store, there are lots of cool book sculptures...
On the second floor, there are thousands of used books for one dollar each.
Some of these used books are organized not by author, title, or subject…but by color.
Upstairs, there are artist studios and galleries. It reminded me a lot of The Magoski Arts Colony in Fullerton, which I am a part of.
As if all this wasn't enough to make this place the best place in the world, they also have a great selection of vinyl records.
And did I mention the zines? Yep, they have those too. I own a little zine store in Fullerton, and whenever I am in a place that also has zines, I feel like I am being allowed a small glimpse of heaven.
In short, The Last Bookstore is one my new favorite places on planet earth. You should go there.