Reader Lifestyle
Visit These 10 SoCal Literary Landmarks
THE BEST SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DESTINATIONS FOR CHEAP BOOKS, VIBRANT POETRY, AND LITERARY INSPIRATION
Southern California — land of murky mauve smog twilight, wildlife neighbors prowling and howling at their loss, the time-altering flows of heavy traffic and tight parking, sea foam cleaned beaches, palpitating concert halls, brick and amber-sheen-wood buildings clashing with glass monoliths, walls transfigured by colorful calligraphy, creativity pickled for preservation amid suburban dearths, bustle and lethargy sitting kitty-corner, and art floating particulate amid the brume of all of this — is chock-full of bookish things to do, if you know where to go. In a region this sprawling, you’re not likely to simply stumble upon these places, so whether you’re just visiting, or reside on this U.S. west coast wedge, use this list of SoCal literary landmarks as a map to the literature that thrives beside the Pacific.
1. The Iliad Bookshop – North Hollywood
A bookish pearl painted vermilion and nestled on the corner of Cahuenga & Chandler in North Hollywood, this oft-overlooked SoCal literary landmark is the Southland’s best bookstore. When the Notes of Oak literary coterie says its going to “the bookstore,” we all know exactly where we’re headed: to The Iliad Bookshop for a three-hour perusal of their plump stacks. This textual treasury not only offers a massive selection of fine lit, it does so at low prices. Most texts (and they’re unblemished copies) are about $5, and there are some scattered stacks and a full back wall with books for only a buck. Titles in the extensive art section run a bit higher price-wise, but for full-color, hardback books, they’re still a steal. Also take a look at The Iliad’s California literature section, which has a breadth and depth truly worthy of this Golden State.
At this almost-too-good-to-be-true literary locale, you can actually alight upon new authors deserving of your reading time through merely browsing; the owners curate a quality selection of texts for the erudite reader. Woolf, Calvino, and Brautigan live here in abundance. Although the store’s poetry section could be expanded, it’s still more substantial than any other bookstore I’ve seen except City Lights in San Francisco. Ladder-laden, snoozing felines scattered, bookish paraphernalia tick-tacked all over the walls, and creaky floorboards highlighting the hush of a space lush with printed words, The Iliad Bookshop is a must-visit Southern California literary landmark.
Literary Destination Tips
- Limited parking in the back, so just parallel park along Cahuenga Blvd.
- The non-fiction section is very loosely organized, but worth scouring for great books — I found Ill Nature here, for example.
- Bring a lot of money because you’re going to find a lot of books that you want.
2. Gatsby Books – Long Beach
Although its textual selection can’t match #1 on this list, primarily because of space limitations, Gatsby Books is still a ventricle serving the heart of the Long Beach bookish community. This SoCal literary landmark not only sells books (including a respectable literature selection), it also serves as an invaluable event space for local poets — cupcakes and spirit refreshments included. Notably, the bookstore has hosted most of CSU Long Beach’s MFA Creative Writing Program Readings in the past five years, during which graduate creatives stand surrounded by books, cat underfoot, and silhouetted against traffic passing by the front window, serving up their lyric words (expect a reading quality better than Open Mic readings, but not yet professional poet performance level). If you’re looking for something readerly to do in Long Beach, Gatsby Books is sure to slake your textual cravings: you can buy a used book for under $10 and simultaneously listen to some local poetry. Best of all, your presence at this literary destination helps support the CSULB MFA program and a little bookshop in a world where used books and creative writing are at risk of going extinct.
Literary Destination Tips
- A boon of parking in the back — so many open spaces, you’ll forget you’re in Long Beach.
- For poetry events, I recommend standing in the back rather than sitting on one of the 20ish folding chairs: sitters who want to exit early always cause a commotion and hurt the feelings of the reader who they duck out on.
3. Orange County Public Libraries – Orange County
(Photo courtesy Orange County Archives)
Ideally, every public library would be as architecturally astounding as #4 on this list of SoCal literary landmarks. But alas, taxpayers everywhere don’t want to dedicate too much of their budget to spaces to house books because who needs libraries anymore, isn’t all the info just online now? *Excuse me while I go scream.* Luckily, libraries have persisted, and who cares how ugly and dust-bunny-rampant the actual building is when every single public library is still a haven for print books. As of 2018, there were 17, 227 U.S. public libraries, all containing more literary treasures than I can enjoy in my lifetime, and every one is on my bookish bucket list.
I’m starting you off with Orange County Public Libraries because that’s my current home library system. Any branch will do, but some standouts include the Irvine/Kate Wheeler branch (for ambience and for the poetry performance space in the basement), the Tustin Library (for the breadth of their collection), and the Garden Grove Main Library (they add new poetry often and there’s also lots of fun fussy fowl in the adjoining park). The best part about county libraries is that the library card you got at the Dana Point branch lets you check out and return books at the Seal Beach branch, or the Tustin one, or Fountain Valley, and so on. With an OCPL library card, you get unlimited access to free books everywhere in Orange County. This list is by no means exclusionary though: across Southern California, there are also amazing city libraries independent of county systems, such as the Newport Beach Public Library. So in other words, get going — you’ve got a lot of SoCal literary landmarks to visit.
(Photo courtesy Orange County Archives)
Literary Destination Tips
- Public libraries always use the Dewey Decimal System, so you know that in each one, the 800 (Belles-lettres) Section is where you want to be if you want to take home poetry and literature for free.
- Don’t sit on any of the fuzzy chairs.
- To get a library card, you’ll need a government-issued photo ID and proof of your current address.
4. L.A. Central Public Library – Downtown L.A.
With features such as a mosaic and mural glazed rotunda, a glass and pillar atrium, blown-glass art installations, an auditorium, and surrounding gardens punctuated by fountains and pools, the Los Angeles Public Library Central branch is not only a public library and a book sanctuary, it’s an architectural masterpiece whose very structure amplifies the enjoyment of the act of research and reading. In its current form, the building is a seamless hybrid between the original 1926 structure and a 1993 expansion. Even the elevators here are memorable, with interiors coated in a collage of old card catalog entries. The Downtown Branch is also the home of ALOUD, a free, open-to-the-public, thought-provoking lecture series that continually features some of the best authors out there engaging in readings, performances, and conversations.
Literary Destination Tips
- I’ve only ever visited by bus, so if you’re looking to drive and park, don’t.
- ALOUD has grown more popular, so book your spot online early. And be courteous — don’t RSVP if you know you’re going to flake.
- It can be daunting to find texts in a library this large. Just ask a Reference Librarian for help.
5. Viento y Agua Coffee House – Long Beach
As noted in the 10 Best Reading Nooks to Enjoy Print Books, cafes make great places to actively interact with texts, whether you’re reading, writing, discussing, or performing. From Portfolio to Hot Java, cornerstone coffee houses spangle Long Beach, but Viento y Agua Coffee House should be first on your list of this SoCal city’s literary cafes. This brick and wood coffee joint features comfortably jumbled furniture, a gallery of art on the walls, and a little stage for live music and poetry readings. While I recommend that all literature aficionados steer clear of Open Mic Nights, no matter the venue, occasionally a curated event with feature a luminary poet. Best of all, admission is free, and the company is always excited to hear writers read.
Literary Destination Tips
- The drinks are good enough. If you attend a literary event, buy one to support the venue.
- During the summer, take a seat in front of a fan because it gets swampy armpit hot.
6. Descanso Gardens – La Cañada Flintridge
This magical botanical fragment nestled where the 2 freeway flows into the 210 is filled with ferns, oaks, roses, ginkgos, California native wildflowers, and so much more. Descanso is a striking demonstration of what plants can do if they’re given even a little room to thrive. Although you won’t find much literal literature here beyond some texts in the gift shop, the entire grounds are florid, aromatic, verdant, and therapeutic; this place makes the SoCal literary landmarks list because it’s a must for poetic inspiration. For just $9, you’ll be granted access to walk amidst foliage that rustles with stories more glorious than any human oral tradition. This is a realm permeated by notes of real oak, colorful camellias in the trees’ understories, the fragrance of 1,600 roses, Matilija poppies serving up fried egg blossoms to the sun, and ancient plant species speaking of the dinosaurs’ extinction. No writer or reader can visit Descanso Gardens without gaining new perspective on their craft and learning a different narrative of this land beside the Pacific.
Literary Destination Tips
- Tons of free parking.
- Go on a weekday to avoid the crowds. The floral aura will imbue you more intensively in solitude than if other humans are skulking around among the flowers.
7. The Huntington Library – San Marino
I have only been to The Huntington Library, Art Collection, and Botanical Gardens twice, but it’s one of those SoCal literary landmarks that perpetually calls to me to visit, visit, visit. That’s because it combines my three favorite things: books, art, and plants. The library contains 420,000 rare books and 7 million manuscripts, and while only a tid-bit is on display at any one time, when you visit, you can just feel the precious paper breathing through the floor and walls. Within, there’s a permanent exhibit where you can peer through the dim light to take in the hallowed ink of Shakespeare’s first folio or Thoreau’s Walden manuscript, and if you’re a scholar, you can get access to fawn over, ahem, I mean study, rare documents.
And that’s just the library. The building is couched in a massive spread of 12 botanical gardens humming with 15,000 plant varieties. To name a few, there’s the California Garden, which showcases the state’s native plants over 6.5 acres; the Desert Garden, where sky and sun stretch clear over fat succulents and rotund cacti; and the Japanese Garden, lush and green and crowned by bonsai trees magnificent in their miniature contortions. While strolling the gardens, you’ll come across the Huntington’s two art galleries sitting serenely amid the greenery. Although the actual art collections are overall a tad stuffy in their content, there are vibrant, intriguing pieces scattered throughout, and the total combination of reverence for the painted and the sculpted housed within buildings that are equally worthy of aesthetic contemplation, will invoke the creative in even the most dull soul. There just isn’t enough time to take in everything on one visit to The Huntington, which is why you’ll immediately want to go back for the literature, the sylvan brilliance, and the homage to art. Oh yeah, and the gift store isn’t too shabby too.
Literary Destination Tips
- Wear sunscreen.
- On weekends, it’s more than 3x as expensive as Descanso, charging $29 for admission, and weekdays are $25. But it’s worth it.
- Bring a writing pad to jot down poetic fragments uprooted by all the art and botanical beauty, along with a book to peruse while seated in one of the ground’s many nooks.
8. 1888 Center – Old Towne Orange
The 1888 Center in Orange, CA, is a truly dynamic literary space, serving as a bookstore, an art gallery, a cafe, and a writing workshop center. The light-filled center is a fairly new addition to the SoCal literary scene, arriving in July 2017, but its first year stats prove that it was direly needed in Orange County’s core: it served up 16 exhibitions, 51 podcast episodes, and 152 educational programs, with more than 4,000 guest attending the center’s onsite workshops. This place is a creative stimulus, an all-in-one joint to visit if you’re looking to listen, learn, sip, and network. Events range from topics such as “The Grammar of Science and Technology,” to “Workshop: Red Hen Press Night,” and overall, there’s a good range between more generically bookish goings-on and die-hard literary nerd events (the ones we want).
Literary Destination Tips
- Check the 1888 Center’s calendar for all upcoming events. Some are free, but others cost around $20. You can buy tickets through the Eventbrite links on the calendar.
9. Beyond Baroque – Venice
One of the original SoCal literary landmarks, Beyond Baroque is a west coast arts institution that’s been furthering Southern California poetic careers for over 50 years. Founded by George Drury Smith in 1968, this literary arts center in Venice houses a gallery, hosts workshops, has a stage for poetry readings, film screenings, and musical performances, contains a bookstore with a huge selection of new poetry books and other media for sale, holds archives filled with local poetry movement papers over the last five decades, and is a publishing press that runs the Pacific Coast Poetry Series, which “aspires to publish the best of those poets whose states lie along the far western edge of the continent.” In short, Beyond Baroque is a one-of-a-kind dynamic SoCal literary destination whose purpose for being is to “advance the public awareness of and involvement in the literary arts” — and the fact that it has existed for so long in a society generally hostile to the growth of literature is a testament to its tenacious significance for the local literary community.
Literary Destination Tips
- Event admission ranges from free to $20, but even if it’s the latter, donate to help sustain this literary landmark.
- If you’re a writer who lives on the U.S. west coast, stay tuned to the Beyond Baroque site for details on entering the Pacific Coast Poetry Series.
10. Out Loud (Annual Event) – Long Beach
This one diverges from the rest of my list in that it’s an event rather than a destination, but it’s still a SoCal literary landmark worthy of your attendance. This “cultural evolution” that is “Celebrating the artistic & cultural contributions of the LGBTQ+ community in Long Beach, CA,” did exactly that in its inaugural year (2018) at the Art Theatre of Long Beach. Against a backdrop of visual art, queer poets and speakers poured words into an audibly moved audience. I’ve been to a lot of poetry events, which tend to have only about 10 people in attendance, including the sad barista in the back brewing coffee for himself, but Out Loud was packed. The crowd was engaged, the content was urgently queer, and the performers were outstanding. Next year looks to expand upon the first event’s success, so don’t miss out on a growing LGBTQ+ literary celebration.
Literary Destination Tips
- The next Out Loud is scheduled for Saturday June 29, 2019 in the same location. If you’re looking to occupy yourself in meantime, you can donate or volunteer to help with event planning!
