Championing books -- and a sense of community
At a new shop in Manhattan Beach, what's on the shelves is just part of the story. It's one of a number of such stores that aim to provide a place for real contact in an increasingly virtual world.
By Joy Horowitz
April 9, 2010, LA Times



Just when I thought the last vestige of life as I've loved it -- meaning life with an inviting bookstore nearby -- was ending, I found hope. First, there was the president in Iowa City, making front-page news because he was browsing in a bookstore. That photograph of him so cheered my Facebook friends, who posted it like crazy, that I wondered if something more was happening here than people clicking a button that said "like."

And then, amid the hoopla over iPads selling like hot cakes, I stumbled upon the opening of Pages: a Bookstore, a small, new independent in Manhattan Beach, of all places -- land of surfer dudes and beach volleyball goddesses and, as it turns out, a plethora of book clubs.

The local press heralded Pages as "a bookstore bucking the big-box bandwagon," and I wondered if its owners had been living in the Dark Ages, unaware that the death knell of independent bookstores had already been sounded. Or maybe they knew something the rest of us didn't?

From the closing of Duttons in Brentwood to Borders' announcement that it would be closing 200 stores and laying off 1,500 employees, sad scenes are being replicated everywhere: Bookstores that have served communities for years are shutting their doors for good. There are many reasons for Apoca-lit Now: the recession, rent increases and even apps that let you scan a book's bar code and find the cheapest price, which isn't going to be at the indie down the street. And that doesn't even include the steamrollering advent of the e-book, which outsold real books on Amazon last Christmas.

Still, it's anyone's guess exactly how old patterns of making, buying and reading books will be affected by all this change. Which is just the point, as it turns out, at Pages. "Anything could happen now," says Linda McLoughlin Figel, one of three co-owners of the new store. (She doesn't seem crazy when you meet her.)
Horowitz's full piece at LA Times.