Echo Park books: Stories old and new

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Just down the street from the papaya-walled Laundromat on Sunset Boulevard, in the heart of Echo Park, is a new bookstore-cafe named Stories.

Opened in November, it is the brainchild of Liz Garo and Claudia Colodro. Both are veteran booksellers: Colodro got her book savvy working for Dutton’s book store in North Hollywood for six years; Garo spent time in sales at Book Soup on the Sunset Strip.

Stories, a hip, loft-like store with concrete floors and high ceilings, is as peaceful as a college library during finals. Small tables are stationed at the front adjacent to the two-story shop windows facing the street. Tucked into the back corner, a small cafe dispenses coffee, killer blondie brownies and soup-and-salad fare.

In between the reading room and the cafe, shelves are stacked with a happy marriage of new and used books. Perusing the cookbook section toward the rear, I found ‘Tassajara’ by Karla Oliveira, a gourmet vegetarian cookbook from the Buddhist monastery standing alongside ‘The Vogue Cookbook of Menus and Recipes’ from 1964. In the children’s section, there is a nice selection of new copies of award-winning ‘Polar Express,’ as well as vintage books such as ‘Reggie the Goat’ (1967) and Little Golden Books from the 1920s.

Although the owners try to keep a 50-50 ratio between new and used books, ‘the vintage ones fly off the shelves so fast, it’s often more like 70% new and 30% old,’ Colodro said. They also take books in trade, generally offering 25% cash and/or credit toward the store’s retail price.

Pop culture, paperback fiction and regional L.A. are among the shop’s specialties, although there’s also a good number of biographies, gardening, art and design books — ‘a little bit of everything,’ Colodro said. What it doesn’t carry — or want — are technical, computer and text books.

With independent bookstores practically on the endangered species list, it’s refreshing to see a small,
neighborhood bookstore flourishing. Stories is at 1716 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park; (213) 413-3733; myspace.com/storiesla. Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays.

—Barbara Thornburg