453 S Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA
Among the canyons of downtown Los Angeles on an autumn evening, the last remains of light fading to a monochrome blue against skyscrapers and sidewalk, the shadows turning black, the neon lights apoplectic up and down South Main Street. We’d only been in town for a few hours but we decided not to wait. I really wanted to make sure I crossed this bookshop off my bucket list, and when we turned the corner and saw the little red neon sign flowing in the distance, my steps quickened past panhandlers dancing to boomboxes on sidewalks as wide as streets in other cities. We were close, closer, and then we walked through the door, past the doorman keeping an eye on those coming and going, and into a vast open room sprawling out into other floors and wings and nooks, revealing one of the greatest bookstores I’ve ever stepped into.
Where to even begin? They have everything. Everything. My journey through the shop had no cohesive order, zigging and zagging into random sections just trying to take it all in. The ceiling in the main room is sky high, held up by massive columns. The amount of fiction is immense and cannot be contained to one area or room. The genres and subsections reel off one row of bookcases after another, with a swath of works by writers who made LA famous, or the other way around. Nearby is LA and California history and notable memoirs, classic fiction, modern fiction, new bestsellers, westerns and romance, comics and graphic novels, war and dystopia, poetry and short stories, essays and literary non-fic, music history (a lot of it) and television and film (it is Tinseltown, after all), a whole side room of vinyl records, and a back area (not quite a room, not quite a nook) full of children’s books, YA, teen, middle reader, picture books.
Across from the large information kiosk near the front there’s a big side room that looks almost like an art gallery (because it is, with floor to ceiling art on the wall) and is chock full of art books, coffee table books, fashion books, vintage books, uncategorizable books of all kinds, including books about Circus art, Chernobyl photos, Rock N Roll fashion, skateboard and surfboard art, 1970s street style, women in art, David Bowie fashions, on and on and on. There were vintage paperbacks with covers you’ll never see in any Barnes & Noble, and a selection of high-end notebooks and sketch pads too. And this is just the first floor!
Upstairs is a maze of rooms and halls, adorned with wildly creative displays, book art, and one-of-a-kind bookshelves. You’ll find vast sections of mystery and crime, Mexican noir, true crime, horror, sci-fi and fantasy of ALL varieties, from hard sci-fi and time travel to grimdark fantasy and sword-and-sorcery. There’s a vault-like room for manga, shelves full of hardcovers aligned by color for home decorating purposes, and sections for paranormal, political science, world and US history, new age and religion, sports, business, travel, language, and so much more. There are more art galleries and offices upstairs, conference rooms and balconies overlooking the vast rooms below. It’s a fun space to explore, to sit and read, to find old favorites and discover new horizons. Just standing at the balcony and taking in the scene below, the columns and artwork, all the folks browsing and wandering around, it felt like the coolest, most relaxing spot in the city.
I walked out with a short stack of books, but in truth, if I lived nearby, I’d be in real trouble. This store is akin to Strand in New York in terms of what it offers, and I might go even further by saying it could edge out the NYC giant by offering a cooler environment to browse, less crowded, more seats and couches for lounging, and fewer tourists. It felt like a huge local hang, vaguely underground, and retaining an old-school edge in a world all too commercialized and polished. If you’re visiting LA, get here. If you live in LA, you’re one lucky bookworm.
Atmosphere — This legendary downtown bookstore is a veritable warehouse of literary gems, with a vast main room and additional floors and side rooms designed for a one-of-a-kind book browsing experience that still feels more like an underground hangout than big box bookstore.
Quality — The vintage finds are stellar, the never-seen-that-before books are plentiful, and the bestsellers are plentiful, and the quality is never an issue.
Quantity — In case you haven’t gotten the message yet, there’s a ton of books here.
Diversity — This shop has everything. Nothing more to say.
Affordability — The books with big stickers seem worth it, as they’re hard to find and truly unique, and the used books throughout are marked down to fair enough discounts that I started to curse not bringing a bigger suitcase on this trip.
Amenities — There are chairs, benches, couches, and all manner of nooks to lounge in as you work your way through the rooms and halls. Plus merch and events, room rentals, photoshoots, and they buy used books, of course.
Location — On the corner of S Spring and 5th near Pershing Square, sort of between Skid Row and the LA Central Public Library.
Customer Service — Lots of staff on hand, service was quick and easy.
Overall — What more can I say about The Last Bookstore. It has its reputation for a reason. A huge quantity of books covering almost any genre and category you can imagine, with merch, lounging space, and one of the coolest arrays of art, book displays, and bookshelves anywhere, not to mention a giant wooly mammoth head on the wall that could be straight from the La Brea Tar Pits. It’s an LA staple and one of the truly great bookstores in America.
