The neighborhood gains a new bookstore
When you live in Los Angeles, you get used to that feeling of urban anonymity wherever you go, but the first time I walked into the new Diesel Books in the Brentwood Country Mart, I glanced down at the guest list and immediately spotted the name of one of my closest friends just a few rows above where I was about to sign up for their email newsletter, and I suddenly felt like I lived in a small town.
Diesel just opened up a few months ago, less than five minutes from my house. Locals like me who live near the Country Mart tend to go there regularly for their Reddi Chick fix, since they have the best rotisserie chicken and ribs in Brentwood. (Also possibly the only rotisserie chicken and ribs in Brentwood.) You order at their take-out counter, then sit outside in the courtyard, either close to the fire or far away from it depending on how warm it is. (When it’s really warm, there’s no fire at all, of course.)
Reddi Chick has always been in the Country Mart (and by “always,” I mean as long as I’ve lived here), but more recently a Barney’s Burgers, a Frida Taqueria and a City Bakery (pretzel croissants, hallelujah!) have all set up shop there, too. So you can now order a turkey burger or some enchiladas, take the beeper they give you, and go right on into Diesel Books while your food is being prepared. Browsing away your waiting time–that’s just heavenly. I used to feel like it took forever for my burger to cook and now it’s ready way too soon.
That’s because Diesel is my kind of bookstore: small, cozy, well-stocked and airy. (Cozy and airy are not easy to achieve simultaneously but they manage it.) There are two other Diesel bookstores, which makes it, I guess, a mini-chain, but in feel it’s pure Indie. Maybe that’s because it doesn’t have that big chain store attitude of “put out the bestsellers and to hell with everything else.” The “bestsellers” out by the front entrance are specific to the store, and not to the New York Times, so you can check out what other people in Brentwood are reading these days and either join in the fun or eschew it altogether.
They pride themselves–rightfully–on their art and cookbook collections which are impressive ones for such a small store. I checked out the graphic novel section which had migrated from one visit to the next, so I had to ask where they had moved it (way down low as it turned out) and, again, they had an impressively wide range of interesting titles given their limited space.
The graphic novel section wasn’t the only part of the store to move around: sections and display tables were shifting a lot at Diesel for the first couple of months, but someone who worked there assured me that they’re pretty happy with the current lay-out and I think things will stay the way they are for a while, although they’re still getting a feel for the local community and are shaping their inventory to respond to people’s interests and needs.
Here’s my advice for them: offer lots of books with pictures of hot, juicy hamburgers on the cover. They’ll sell like hotcakes. Or, you know, burgers.
Diesel Books
Brentwood Country Mart
225 26th Street, Suite 33
Santa Monica, CA 90402
310-576-9960
info@dieselbookstore.com
(also in Malibu and Oakland)
Tags: bookstore, brentwood, Brentwood bookstore, California, California bookstore, Los Angeles, Los Angeles bookstore
-
I wish them the best!
Reply
Recent Articles
-
Wonderful Video of What Happens in a Bookstore at Night
I’ve been in a bit of a posting slump, but I’m working my way out and what better way to start the new year than with this lovely stop action video, “The Joy of Books,” about what happens in Type bookstore at night. I can’t wait to visit Toronto just to stop by Type Books to [...]
-
Scrambling For A Last Minute Gift? Head To Your Local Bookstore!
Farhad Manjoo ignited the latest round of ‘will the local bookstore survive’ with his “Don’t Support Your Local Bookstore” tirade on Slate. (I couldn’t fail to notice that while Salon promotes a campaign to support local bookstores, Slate is bashing them.) Numerous responses Manjoo were published, twitter feeds with special hashtags popped up, and even [...]
-
57th Street Books – Chicago, IL
57th Street, the actual street, is perfect for the meandering bookworm. We started with lunch at the graffiti clad Medici Restaurant. Famous for its burgers and scribbled upon walls and furnishings, we filled the time waiting for our food by adding our own “tags” to the table top. More importantly, within blocks there are three [...]
-
Essay Challenge Recap
I coming in just under the wire this year, this challenge must be completed today!! The Essay Challenge over at Books and Movies is the only one I joined this year, even so, I didn’t keep up with it the way I have the past two years. Not that I haven’t read essays all year [...]
-
Salon says “Support Your Local Bookstore!”
In the latest pitch to keep bookstores alive and well, or at least breathing, Salon.com gave credit to indies for finding and promoting the latest excellent book most of us don’t know: An independent bookstore brings a lot to a city or a town: a showroom for the latest literary releases, an auditorium where authors [...]
-
Small Business Saturday – Shop at Local Businesses on November 26th!
Actually shop at them as much as possible, they are the engine that drives your local economy. But, let’s give the little guys a leg up in the middle of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Drop by a local business, chat with a real person, and contribute to your neighborhood economy by purchasing a Christmas [...]
-
Which authors would you invite to Thanksgiving dinner?
Taking a riff from NPR’s story last week about which deceased composers Miles Hoffman would invite to Thanksgiving dinner, I pondered the same question for authors and asked quite a few friends. Here are the guidelines: which dead authors would you invite to Thanksgiving dinner? Which author would you invite to give a reading Thanksgiving [...]
-
Breaking Dawn – Part 1 Opens Today
One of the pleasures of having a teenage daughter is the opportunity to share silly, girlly experiences. While I understand all of the criticism about the Twilght series, and agree with some, as I’ve written before, I’ve enjoyed the ride. Even more, I’m grateful for the opportunity to share the sheer reading fun with my daughter. [...]
-
Abbey Books & Gifts – Valyermo, CA
I spent just over 24 hours last week at St. Andrews Abbey. I’m not Catholic, but I enjoy joining the monks in the Daily Office. For those of you new to that term (and that would’ve been me a couple of years ago), it’s the practice of pausing at several set times through out the [...]
-
Alexander Book Co. – San Francisco, CA
Alexander Book Co. is a traditional independent bookstore tucked around a corner in downtown San Francisco. Wedged between office towers and the Academy of Arts complex, it’s a cozy respite from steel, glass, and marble. The store even smells like good books waiting to be discovered. The first time I tried to visit the store, [...]
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link: http://www.bookstorepeople.com/2009/02/diesel-books-now-in-brentwood/trackback/