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.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Woodland Pattern Book Center, Milwaukee, WI
Woodland Pattern Book Center
720 East Locust Street
Milwaukee, WI 53216
(414) 263-5001
A CORONAL by: William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
“New books of poetry will be written
New books and unheard of manuscripts
will come wrapped in brown paper
and many and many a time
the postman will bow
and sidle down the leaf-plastered steps
thumbing over other men's business….”
On the North side of Milwaukee in Riverwest, Woodland Pattern Book Center sparkles. For 25 years this phenomenal store has focused on poetry books, chapbooks, original broadsides, workshops, author talks, festivals and much more. They carry 27,000 titles. Here is an image never seen before: tall racks stuffed, cheek by jowl, with poetry chapbooks. Then, floor to ceiling bookcases packed with small press books, large imprints, regional, national and international poets/authors books, books about Native Americans. Books sizzling with information by writers and about writing.
The Artistic Director/Owner, Karl Gartung, and his wife, Anne Kingsbury, bought the building in 1980 and began Woodland Patterns. Thus, this bookstore became the second of two not-for-profit bookstores in the U.S. Anne applies for grants, signs up members, receives donations and keeps the place in the black. Authors are even paid for their lectures and workshops, Karl feeling they shouldn’t subsidize their own work. Wisely, Karl still drives an airfreight truck, keeping his benefits, but never loses sight of his mission.
often working 90 hour weeks.
Over coffee elsewhere, Karl and his Literary Program Manager, Chuck Stebelton, talked about Karl’s focus: “writing should not be taught separately from the rest of the arts” but as Karl said “as soon as you put the black marks on the page you are creating art…poetry has to be in the world, not separate…art must be held in common…”
Woodland offers each visitor a rare arts buffet under one roof: Redletter (authors/poets reading from their works), Alternating Currents Live (new music playing in the gallery and broadcast the following week on 91.7 FM), Experimental films and video? (last Fri. of every month). Even a bookmobile that tours with exhibitions of artist’s works, workshops and zines. This multi-disciplinary approach embraces, instead of segregates, the arts.
Run, don’t walk, to visit this Center. What a gift this place is to the literary world. When we despair that no one cares about poetry or literature visit Woodland Patterns. It is a living reminder that the arts thrive through the efforts of a few people at a time.
720 East Locust Street
Milwaukee, WI 53216
(414) 263-5001
A CORONAL by: William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
“New books of poetry will be written
New books and unheard of manuscripts
will come wrapped in brown paper
and many and many a time
the postman will bow
and sidle down the leaf-plastered steps
thumbing over other men's business….”
On the North side of Milwaukee in Riverwest, Woodland Pattern Book Center sparkles. For 25 years this phenomenal store has focused on poetry books, chapbooks, original broadsides, workshops, author talks, festivals and much more. They carry 27,000 titles. Here is an image never seen before: tall racks stuffed, cheek by jowl, with poetry chapbooks. Then, floor to ceiling bookcases packed with small press books, large imprints, regional, national and international poets/authors books, books about Native Americans. Books sizzling with information by writers and about writing.
The Artistic Director/Owner, Karl Gartung, and his wife, Anne Kingsbury, bought the building in 1980 and began Woodland Patterns. Thus, this bookstore became the second of two not-for-profit bookstores in the U.S. Anne applies for grants, signs up members, receives donations and keeps the place in the black. Authors are even paid for their lectures and workshops, Karl feeling they shouldn’t subsidize their own work. Wisely, Karl still drives an airfreight truck, keeping his benefits, but never loses sight of his mission.
often working 90 hour weeks.
Over coffee elsewhere, Karl and his Literary Program Manager, Chuck Stebelton, talked about Karl’s focus: “writing should not be taught separately from the rest of the arts” but as Karl said “as soon as you put the black marks on the page you are creating art…poetry has to be in the world, not separate…art must be held in common…”
Woodland offers each visitor a rare arts buffet under one roof: Redletter (authors/poets reading from their works), Alternating Currents Live (new music playing in the gallery and broadcast the following week on 91.7 FM), Experimental films and video? (last Fri. of every month). Even a bookmobile that tours with exhibitions of artist’s works, workshops and zines. This multi-disciplinary approach embraces, instead of segregates, the arts.
Run, don’t walk, to visit this Center. What a gift this place is to the literary world. When we despair that no one cares about poetry or literature visit Woodland Patterns. It is a living reminder that the arts thrive through the efforts of a few people at a time.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Expressing ourselves. What is it about writing down words or reading what others have written that is so essential? Sharing ideas and thoughts and fears and hopes with others through talking is what we do every day. That sort of use of words allows us to touch another verbally (for better or worse) immediately. Yet, it is the words on the page, written by someone who creates stories, ideas or ways of approaching life that often seem more important.
We all save books. There they are on shelves, in stacks on desks or on the floor, in boxes in basements or closets. When we move, we cart them along as if we can touch our own history or keep special stories or ideas that made a difference through the pages in these books. Looking at that dusty or wrinkled cover I can remember when I was in high school and I read that book. Maybe you were in college and you struggled through that assigned reading and loved it when you finished it.
I have books of Shakespeare on an old bookcase. The book jacket is torn yet when I pick it up I remember a teacher in high school who turned me on to Shakespeare. I can still see her animated face brimming with enthusiasm, her eyes sparkling, as she led us through Julius Caesar.
Coming from a home where education wasn't valued, but getting a job was, my excitement about a writer's words was almost heresy. My Mom read all the time but Shakespeare, to her, was stepping out of our working class lives. I was being uppity and, I suspect, it made her feel inferior. Besides, how could words on a page written so long ago be provocative or the stories relevant to my day?
What I have discovered is that all literature uses the basic underlying themes of our imperfect humanity: unfulfilled promises, heroism in the face of great emotional or physical danger, rising from the ashes of defeat, jealously, sibling rivalry, problem solving, deceit and many more.
"Aha!" we say in recognition of the traits in our favorite characters. This is the story of what happened to these people and this is how they solved their predicament (or didn't). Writers fill the ongoing need for these stories by researching then sharing their life stories, or stories put together out of their human experiences or how-to stories.
Being human and expressing ourselves by being involved with the world, reflecting on it and sharing it with others. That is what at least part of life is about.
We all save books. There they are on shelves, in stacks on desks or on the floor, in boxes in basements or closets. When we move, we cart them along as if we can touch our own history or keep special stories or ideas that made a difference through the pages in these books. Looking at that dusty or wrinkled cover I can remember when I was in high school and I read that book. Maybe you were in college and you struggled through that assigned reading and loved it when you finished it.
I have books of Shakespeare on an old bookcase. The book jacket is torn yet when I pick it up I remember a teacher in high school who turned me on to Shakespeare. I can still see her animated face brimming with enthusiasm, her eyes sparkling, as she led us through Julius Caesar.
Coming from a home where education wasn't valued, but getting a job was, my excitement about a writer's words was almost heresy. My Mom read all the time but Shakespeare, to her, was stepping out of our working class lives. I was being uppity and, I suspect, it made her feel inferior. Besides, how could words on a page written so long ago be provocative or the stories relevant to my day?
What I have discovered is that all literature uses the basic underlying themes of our imperfect humanity: unfulfilled promises, heroism in the face of great emotional or physical danger, rising from the ashes of defeat, jealously, sibling rivalry, problem solving, deceit and many more.
"Aha!" we say in recognition of the traits in our favorite characters. This is the story of what happened to these people and this is how they solved their predicament (or didn't). Writers fill the ongoing need for these stories by researching then sharing their life stories, or stories put together out of their human experiences or how-to stories.
Being human and expressing ourselves by being involved with the world, reflecting on it and sharing it with others. That is what at least part of life is about.
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