The Last Bookstore (3 of 40)

The Last Bookstore, arguably LA’s more famous literary venue, has been on my 40 by Forty list since a friend posted about their visit a couple years ago. I’m a sucker for used books. One of my favorite activities has always been to peruse the previously-owned sections of the local library. I like that I never know what I might stumble across. The fact that someone else has passed a particular book along feels like a personal endorsement somehow. Certainly the price can’t be beat. The Last Bookstore doesn’t solely house used books, but it does boast being the largest used and new bookstore in California. That’s definitely worth a trip downtown in my book. (See what I did there? Clever, right?) 

So last fall, during the bitter depths of quarantine, I dragged my friend Tim along with me to DTLA. I had come across a self-guided haunted tour of Los Angeles online which to me sounded like a perfect socially-distanced spooky excursion. Traipsing through the pee-lined streets of Skid Row is surprisingly not everyone’s cup of tea. Being the good friend that he is, Tim did agree to tag along but only after professing, “You know this is going to be totally lame, right?”  

Now, I’d love to say that he was wrong and that lameness did not ensue...but I’d be lying. The stories were super tame, nary a shiver in the bunch. Ironically, they were all surprisingly similar. Turns out if you were a hotel maintenance worker in the early years of Los Angeles, there was a pretty good chance you were going to fall through an open elevator shaft from the third floor of the building and spend the rest of eternity haunting the halls of your former workplace. Bummer. 

It was at about the third stop that we came across The Last Bookstore, and all was not lost! Located on the ground floor of the Spring Arts Tower, it is an eclectic two-story store with many creatively designed alcoves and several gallery shops. Upstairs, there is a hallway of books that stretch overhead creating a tunnel-like effect and shelves arranged in a labyrinth making it even easier to get lost while book-browsing. 

I found a gem almost immediately. The title seemed to scream at me from the shelf and I knew I must walk no further in this life without knowing precisely what an Effing Bird is!

Now I feel I should explain that I have no real fascination with birds. I mean, I like them okay enough. I even enjoy when I see one that appears more unusual than, say, a pigeon, but on my list of creatures that interest me, they’re not in my top ten or anything.

I am however a total fan of well-placed curse words. And sarcasm. And even some seriously juvenile potty humor. So when I leafed through the pages of this book, I knew I had found my jam. 

Because I didn’t actually take any photos at The Last Bookstore itself, I figured I would add a little spice to this post with a small literary review. And, yes, that is my best attempt at the librarian look. 🤓