{"id":8740,"date":"2019-10-25T06:47:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T06:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/?page_id=8740"},"modified":"2023-07-11T16:55:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T16:55:51","slug":"the-last-bookstores-upstairs-labyrinth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/misc\/the-last-bookstores-upstairs-labyrinth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Bookstore’s upstairs labyrinth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On my last trip to LA I just sort of stumbled across The Last Bookstore<\/a>, a large bookstore selling new, used, antique, and rare books and comic books as well as vinyl records. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both times I wandered in I was a little distracted by well-attended events they were holding in the store with authors and poets. Not a bad problem to have for The Last Bookstore by any means, but it meant I couldn’t explore the space as freely as I would have liked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out I’d missed two key aspects to the store. One I knew about: the upstairs. The other took me by surprise: the bank vaults. Yes, the building was once a bank, and the open bank vault doors now reveal small rooms lined with books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what’s upstairs? Balconies on each of the four sides of the building are roughly half devoted to art gallery spaces, and half to a quirky “labyrinth” of oddball book decor and oddly arranged shelving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On those shelves you’ll find a strange blend of genres from science fiction to identity politics. A few bookshelves are devoted to single topics — Sherlock Holmes, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a short video I put together of the crazy upstairs labyrinth at The Last Bookstore. I had to remove the ambient audio due to copyrights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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