Photos by Lori Nyx for LAist Put down that mouse for a second and take a deep breath. Imagine yourself in a cavernous bookstore, wandering through endless stacks in search of the rare and the wonderful. Drink in the eclectic surroundings, the musty scent of wood, paper and 5 decades of history. How did you get here? Maybe you just happened to be passing the quaint 30's era store front and felt the need......

Some of our favorite independent bookstores in LA (Skylight Books, Vroman's, Diesel, Book Soup) have been targeted by scammers claiming to be some of our favorite writers. Here's how it works: a would-be writer calls a bookstore (impersonating a writer who has a scheduled store appearance in the next few hours or days), complains of car trouble, and asks to have cash wired to them immediately to avert their made-up crisis. These pranksters have impersonated......

As we lamented in February, Beyond Baroque was in danger of losing its lease and Venice was in danger of losing one of the most unique places for poets to gather and perform their work. Mere hours before their lease was to expire, L.A. City Council voted to extend the lease for 25 more years - at only $1 a year! What could be more exciting than Beyond Baroque getting a stay of execution? The......

Many LAist staffers, contributors and readers were deeply troubled by the news of Dutton's closure. We all have a favorite memory of Dutton's - a particular book we discovered there, an admired author we met at a reading, a certain afternoon spent browsing. We'd like to honor the many unique memories of Dutton's that we all share with a series of posts about what Dutton's meant to us and what it meant to you. Our......

Sad, sad news in bookish LA: Dutton's Brentwood is closing its doors. After a long battle with developers and uncertainty, which we covered last year, Doug Dutton has made the difficult decision to close. He points out, though, that Charles T. Munger, the developer that has purchased the property, has "has committed to a significant amount of financial support for the difficult process of closing the store, and we appreciate his generosity." We are saddened......