I’m a homebody. My family would say that’s the understatement of the year. I don’t mind traveling–so long as I have my entire family with me and our hotel room is dark and luxurious–but I’m happiest at home and most of my stress in life centers on trying to get everyone home by dinner time with no reason to leave the house again until the next morning. Or never. So it’s not surprising that my favorite bookstore is within a couple of miles of my own house.
Village Books in the Pacific Palisades isn’t exactly huge. In fact, their slogan is “Large enough to serve you, small enough to know you.” And they do–know me, that is. And my kids. It’s the kind of store where a kid can march up to someone who works there and say, “Can you help me find a book I’d like?” and they’re happy to wander over to the (surprisingly well-stocked given the limited space) children’s section and spend time pulling out titles and discussing them.
Village Books has an entire wall devoted to local book clubs, which makes for fine browsing in and of itself–I’m always looking through them, thinking, “Oh, I want to read that one,” even though I don’t actually belong to a single adult book club myself. They have a cozy picture book nook, about the size of a closet, with a place to sit and shelves of children’s books circling all three walls so a small child can make himself comfortable as he plucks one book after another from the shelves to see if it strikes his fancy. (One of my favorite photos is of my daughter reading out loud to her little brother who sits on her lap in that very nook.) No one ever tells the kids they “can’t read without buying.” ( Let’s hope parents are equally respectful and remind their kids to treat the books gently and then buy the ones that the kids love.)
There’s usually a conversation or two going on in the aisles or by the cash register, as the people who work there chat with their customers about options for gifts, the best choice from a reading list, their own favorite recent book and so on. You can certainly ask anyone for a recommendation, but you don’t need to be cause the staff fills out little cards for their favorite books and sticks them in the stack so you can see who likes what and why.
Buying a book earns you some credit back–with enough purchases, you can eventually buy a book for free (a system my kids discovered and abused by asking if we had credit and using it for their own purchases). They’ll order any book you want and have it there quickly. It is a little store with big service. And it’s pretty much in my own backyard. Long may it live.
Village Books
1049 Swarthmore Avenue
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Hours: Monday-Friday: 10am-8pm and Saturday-Sunday: 10am-6pm
Tags: book club, California, California bookstore, Los Angeles, Los Angeles bookstore, nook, Pacific Palisades, Pacific Palisades bookstore
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