Bookstore Spotlight: The Last Bookstore (Los Angeles, CA)

Most residents of Los Angeles don’t dispute the fact that their downtown neighborhoods boast the most lovely architecture in the city, and our latest Bookstore Spotlight feature, The Last Bookstore, is no exception.

Located on the corner of 5th and Spring street, The Last Bookstore is relatively new, but like its name suggests it could serve as the last outpost for book lovers in the apocalypse, and therefore should be cherished. The books on the ground floor are neatly and beautifully organized, and even if the poetry section is a little small and male-centric, it contains some real gems, such as Brad Gooch’s biography of Frank O’Hara, plus a (maybe legitimate) signed copy of Philip Levine’s early book, Not This Pig. In summary, plenty of titles no society member could resist.

But you haven’t even gone upstairs yet! On the small upper balcony of the shop, you’ll find what you might call Book Art: sculptures and arrangements of countless volumes of the most random books (spotted: British Royalty for Dummies) which together create a veritable wonderland of crackable spines. This is a place where you remember and appreciate just how many books are out there in the world, just waiting to find a home.