Latitude 33 Bookstore, Laguna Beach, CA

A Tour of Independent Bookstores by Sue Roupp

Latitude 33 Bookshop
311 Ocean Avenue
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
949.494.5403
“The Best Bookshop in the Latitude”

Pacific Coast Highway is just what it sounds like: a coastal highway meandering along the Pacific Ocean all the way to the Mexican border. Driving along you see foamy, white capped waves rolling in toward the shore punctuated with white surf boards. The black wet-suited surfers twisting and turning as they catch a wave until the waves, and the surf boarders, dissipate in the shallows. Turning around, they paddle out for maybe the next great ride.

Laguna Beach is an artist mecca/tourist town that rides the Pacific Ocean view splashing itself up along the rising hills. Galleries mingle with tourist shops next to small homes wrapped in bougainvillea vines; their splashy hot pink flowers thriving in the California sun.

Latitude 33 is a bookstore sharing a long, rectangular space with a photography store named Silver Images. The bookstore began in 1997 and the light colored wooden bookcases are temporary resting places for books by local authors, books on travel, art and architecture, interior design, poetry, children’s books, fiction, non-fiction and much more. This store has a literary and artistic bent catering to this haven for artists.

Local residents are very loyal to this bookstore and the general manager Betty McIntire told me “the nearest big box bookstore is 20 minutes away. We specialize in customer service; get to know our customer’s tastes and orders are made with our customer base in mind.” The devotion to customer service is “what keeps us in business.”

It is a pleasure to those who work in this bookstore to “introduce a beautiful book to a customer that the customer may not know about.” Tourists browse, but the Laguna Beach residents attend, on a steady basis, the author readings (many from UC-Irvine Writers program), sign up for the book discount program (Booklover Bucks: for every $100 spent you get a $10 coupon) and return to have books ordered.

Next time you are in Southern California (Orange County) stop in, find interesting titles, sit and read a book written by a local author and buy a book or two to bring home from your trip. That book, along with those author’s words, will always bring back wonderful memories.