We learnt from residents posting on Nextdoor that a bookstore opened in our neighborhood, which is exciting news, so we went to check it out.
Sideshow Books, a store of used and rare books that for 11 years was located on Idaho Ave, near the Nuart movie theater, has recently moved to 1639 La Cienega Blvd just north of Airdrome.
Sideshow Books
Owner Tony Jacobs told me that their previous place was too small, they had so many books that they needed more space for their large inventory. This new location is spacious and brightly lit by two big skylights. Tony is concerned that many people throw books away now, and they are not being reprinted, so they will disappear. Used bookstores are an essential part of the chain of life for books and they are dying out now because of the price of real estate. His mission is to preserve and promote book culture, the goal directed at younger people is to make books cool again, he hopes customers will come into his store and discover books they didn’t expect to find.
Tony Jacobs, Sideshow Books.
It’s not just old books that Tony wishes to preserve, but also the appreciation for classic old movies. He teamed up with film scholar Tom Newth to show a series of Hollywood’s sleepers, like All Through the Night (1942) with Humphrey Bogart, and Italian suspense films (gialli) like Mario Bava’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963).
The movies are projected on the wall from a laptop in the funky back patio of the bookstore on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8.30pm. Call for program: 310-428-4631
If you love books, please support this local bookstore, and visit The Last Bookstore downtown, located at 433 S Spring St, in an amazing building from 1914 that used to be a bank. Read Ray Bradbury’s 1953 classic novel Farenheit 451, about a future totalitarian society where books are outlawed and burnt. Francois Truffaut directed a film version in 1966, it was recently remade into a TV movie for HBO. Look up my article about Ray Bradbury in Cultural Weekly.
Text and photos by Elisa Leonelli