Consider it an end-table version of the coffee-table book "Los Angeles," Tim Street-Porter's enormous (and, at $195, expensive) limited-edition 2006 book.

The compact version will be issued next week. Roughly 9 inches by 4 inches, the glossy primer on L.A.'s architecture can be easily carried along as you scout many of the sites and locales (Musso & Frank Grill, for instance) the book captures so beautifully. And although the new book may not have the pull-out panoramas of the original, you'll appreciate its small scale as you flip back and forth between the images and the index in the back to identify the majestic menagerie of Lautners, Neutras, Gehrys, Wrights and Schindlers. The price is smaller too, at $17.95. www.rizzoliusa.com

-- Lisa Boone