Bookworms Will Find Havens in These Spaces

Shopping the local book chain is fine if you don’t mind a bland atmosphere, indifferent help and mostly mass-market publications. But if you like special books, knowledgeable help and comfortable surroundings, check out some of North County’s home-grown book stores.

Many are giving the big chains a run for the money with everything from food and entertainment to a place to park the kids.

ESMERALDA

1555 Camino Del Mar, Del Mar, 755-2707. Hours: Sun . -Thu. 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri. - Sat. 10 a.m.-11 p.m. “Sometimes earlier. Many times later.” Hidden away in an alley on the upper level of the Del Mar Plaza, Esmeralda is a treasure for book and coffeehouse lovers.

The nearly year-old operation devotes a good deal of shelf space to contemporary fiction, mysteries, art and design, cookbooks, politics and current affairs.

Good lighting, wide aisles, and a couple of bentwood chairs make it a pleasant place for a good read. Or you can take your purchase out to the secluded patio and dine fairly reasonably on snack-size meals, pastries, and gourmet coffees. If you sit in the right spot, there’s even an ocean view. This large umbrella-shaded patio is also the setting for the store’s author readings and occasional concerts.

But, for all its ambience, Esmeralda prides itself on service. “Picking out a good book can be overwhelming with 60,000 new titles published every year,” says co-owner Carole Carden. “If we see people gazing at the shelves for any length of time, we ask if they’d like suggestions. They almost always do.”

Suggestions also come in the form of recommendation notes, written and taped on bookcases by the well-read staff:

We recommend--

Title: Los Gusanos

Author: John Sayles

‘Fear, loathing and hope set in Miami. A great read.’

-- (employee) Richard THE BOOK WORKS

Flower Hill Mall, 2670 Via Del La Valle, Del Mar, 755-3735. Hours: Monday-Thursday. 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 10 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-11 p.m. It’s hard to resist the aroma of fresh coffee and chocolate cheesecake emanating from the Pannikin in the space next to the Book Works, so you might as well give in and indulge yourself before you hit the books.

You can’t bring books into the cafe, but you’re welcome to bring coffee into the bookstore, settle the kids in the play-pit, yourself in a chair, and flip pages. With its classical music, ethnic art and mellow woods, you may feel like you’re in a cozy living room instead of a bookstore.

The 15-year-old operation mostly bypasses popular pulp in favor of more literate offerings--particularly in the fields of art, photography, literature, children’s books and cookbooks. It also has a good supply of hard-to-find foreign magazines. And, what you don’t see here, you can always get. The Book Works seems to have one of the most liberal special order policies in the county. Most stores require a deposit on all special orders and won’t take back that $50 art book you thought you couldn’t live without, but the Book Works requires no deposit on most orders. The customer is under no obligation to buy, unless, as owner Milane Christiansen explains, “The book is so esoteric the publisher won’t allow a return.”

The store sponsors occasional author lectures and readings, and hosts popular jazz, folk, and other musical concerts that pack ‘em into the cafe every Friday night.

WORD JOURNEYS

A TRAVELER’S BOOKSTORE

Lomas Santa Fe Plaza, 971-C Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach, 481-4158. Hours: Mon.-Wed. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Thu. 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. noon-6 p.m. Word Journeys may not dispense coffee and croissants with its books, but its well-traveled staff dispenses plenty of advice, can explain the difference between a Fodor and a Frommer, will suggest what to pack on safari, and, for a fee, will even help you plan your trip.

But the focus here is on books, and what is billed the largest selection of its kind in Southern California, are guidebooks, international cookbooks, children’s destination guides, as well as globes, atlases, travel accessories, language cassettes, and videos that can be purchased or borrowed.

There is also a good selection of travelers’ tales to get your wind wandering, like “A Life on the Road” by Charles Kuralt, “Long Ago in France” by M.F.K. Fisher, and “A Room With a View” by E.M. Forster.

Armchair travel is a real possibility here, with a couple of upholstered wing chairs, and a play-pit may even unglue that toddler from your leg.

Word Journeys also puts on travel-related programs, such as a recent demonstration by a Nordstrom personal shopper who made 62 outfits out of 17 items and packed them all, including shoes, into one small bag. Other programs include destination slide shows, Balinese dancing, Spanish guitar concerts and a talk by a spa owner on how to stay fit while traveling. Some programs are free, others have a $2 cover charge that can be applied toward a store purchase.

MAPS & TRAVEL

112 South El Camino Real, Encinitas 942-9642. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun. noon-4 p.m. Another bookstore geared to the traveler, but this one is for hikers, bikers, climbers, and other adventurous types who take their R&R; seriously and need highly specialized maps and guides to get them around remote areas. Like the elementary school teacher planning to hike the mountains of northern India, the student ordering a Travel Survival Kit for Pakistan, the biker planning a ride to the tip of South America who’s buying guides and maps so he can chart his way south a year before he departs.

“People enjoy the process of reading and mapping out their trip as much as they do the trip itself,” said co-owner Carolyn Wood.

Half of the store is devoted to topographical, land-use, political and other specialized maps, and the other half to books arranged by location and sport.

Titles geared to the risk and rough it explorer include, “Jaguars Ripped My Flesh,” and “A Fine and Pleasant Misery.”

PHOENIX PHYRE

704 N. Highway 101, Leucadia, 436-7740. Hours: Mon.-Thu. 10-8, Fri., Sat. - Sun. 10-6. You may wish you wore your ‘60s love beads when you step into this new and used bookstore dedicated to psychic development, but owner Jo Anne Jordan says what they’re selling is very 1990s.

“You don’t need a guru today, and you don’t need to sit on a mountain top to find the answers,” Jordan said. “If there’s something you want to know, or some aspect of yourself you want to change, you look for a book, a couple of tapes, and go home and work on it.”

Many religions and philosophies are represented here, but a good deal of shelf space is given over to an Eastern view as well as to astrology, numerology, Tarot, channeling, and witchcraft. Sample titles include: “Psychic Beam to Beyond,” “Pygmies & Demon Gods,” and “Magic Rights From the Crystal Well.”

The store also sponsors lectures, workshops, and a psychic fair where astrologers, clairvoyants, face readers, and other soothsayers give 15-minute mini-consultations in the classroom, while outside vendors sell everything from crystals and tie-dye to petrified chicken feet.

Jordan hosts a sometimes serious, sometimes humorous call-in radio show on KCEO AM-1000 at 5:00 weeknights, where she interviews authors, UFO experts, health practitioners and other New Age gurus.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY

and LIFE ENRICHMENT CENTER

355 W . Felicita Ave . , Escondido, 745-2724. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Sat. - Sun. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Like Phoenix Phyre, the Philosophical Library has the standard new and used books, audio and video tapes for sale on meditation, dream interpretation, and spirit communication, as well as the obligatory incense, crystals, and earth-mother jewelry.

But, since it functions as a nonprofit corporation, it also has a large lending library, where for $15 a year members can check out everything from out-of-print books on astrology to rare volumes on mainline and alternative religions.

The center also hosts almost daily and evening lectures, classes, and seminars.

An example from the newsletter:

Course in Miracles A circle of sharing, caring people exchanging experiences in applying the principles taught in the course’s 3 volumes.

--Love Offering The UFO Society, Overeaters Anonymous and The Pack Rats Support Group also meet here in the in-store auditorium.

I LOVE TO READ

12798 Rancho Penasquitos Bl v d . , Rancho Penasquitos, 538-0118. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. This young people’s bookstore was aflutter with preteen girls on a recent afternoon in anticipation of a tea party. Not a Mr. T, or an MTV party, mind you, but a cookies and lemonade, wear-your-best-dress event.

Instead of talk of Madonna, malls, and mini-skirts, there was an animated discussion about what girls did and wore in 1854, with a hands-on quilting and cooking demonstration, and act-out stories and games from the American Girls Collection, a popular series of 18 illustrated books about three girls in three time: 1854, 1904 and 1944.

These waiting-list-parties are the brainchild of I Love to Read owner Maria Escobar Bordyn, a self-avowed bookaholic, who, when she got tired of searching all over for quality books for her children, opened her own store.

Escobar-Bordyn also publishes a quarterly newsletter reviewing new and notable books for kids, with a special section called “My Favorite Books” that gives local youngsters a chance to play bylined book reviewer.

THE READING PATCH

114 S. El Camino Real,

Encinitas, 632-0301.

Hours: 10:00-5:30 Mon.-Sat.

The former Encinitas school teacher who owns this place must be doing something right since this children’s bookstore was crawling with kids on a recent Saturday morning. It could have something to do with the bright surroundings, the play pit, and the squirt-sized reading benches.

Or maybe it’s because there’s something usually going on in the way of art classes, story hours and author readings.

Whatever it is, this spot seems user-friendly for kids and adults alike. Shelves are divided into a well-labeled selection of biographies, folk tales, fables, music, and art, among other subjects for preschoolers to young adults. There are also books for adults on parenting, children’s books in Spanish, as well as educational games and tapes.

HERITAGE BOOKS

1785 Escondido Blvd., Escondido, 746-6601. Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10:30-5:30. (In the process of relocating from 410 W . Felicita Ave.) The shelves of this shop are so chock-full that it’s easy to miss the gems in the jumble of new and mostly used books.

Gems like a first edition of “The Great Gatsby” that recently sold for $350, individual volumes of Victor Hugo’s works, printed in French in 1859 for $30 apiece, and five volumes of Milton, printed in 1843, for $425. There are also fine leather editions of works by Robert Penn Warren, John Steinbeck and other notable authors.

Owner Lydia Nicholas started out in ’66 with a new, mainstream bookstore, but as the chains and discounters moved into town, she changed her focus to an eclectic collection of first editions, signed editions, out-of-print and just plain used books.

She carries a large section on the Civil War, turn-of-the-century fairy books and hard-to-find volumes on antiques and collectables.

Nicholas regularly conducts an international book search, looking for that elusive volume to complete a collection or start a new one. “We often find things we didn’t know existed,” says Nicholas. “Like the D.H. Lawrence books that were so obscure there was no listing on them. And the 18th-Century book about the search for Noah’s Ark we found for a client about to go on the same expedition.

“You never know what you’re going to find out there. That’s what makes this business so interesting.”