Bibliophiles rejoice: Echo Park's newly opened Des Pair Books is launching a quarterly zine, Seasons of Des Pair, this summer.
. It was a poorly lit and somewhat disorganized space in a strip mall that could transport you to another place.
The bookstore boom of the late ’90s and early aughts brought us the bloated behemoths of Barnes & Noble and Borders. They sold books and magazines, CDs, DVDs, games, home furnishings, and burnt coffee. They did what they needed to do, but the big-box experience lacked the personal touch of what I thought a bookstore should be.
Luckily, the independent bookstore is back as a fixture of some cities of late. Los Angeles has a few great ones: Skylight Books in Los Feliz, Arcana: Books On the Arts in Culver City, and Book Soup in West Hollywood are all staples that serve different functions. In addition, Echo Park, an eastside neighborhood that borders the overgrown Silver Lake and downtown, has a new home for bibliophiles.on a walkable strip of Echo Park Avenue next door to the perennially busy boutique grocer Cookbook .
The store is clean and straightforward. The light-wood shelves are stocked with new fiction, classics, art, cinema, and an excellent selection of cookbooks. It feels like an actual store with a point of view. Most days, you will find Richley behind the counter, her dog Maude lounging beside her, happy to recommend a title; Violette Leduc’s