BOOK NOOKS : From metaphysics to mysteries, L.A. abounds in bookstores catering to specialized interests.

Looking for a bookstore that specializes in sports? What about metaphysics or mysteries? Greater L.A. offers many stores for readers in search of all sorts of unusual, specialized reading. Here is a sampling within a 20-mile radius of City Hall. Also included are Southern California’s oldest bookseller and its largest. The stores occupy buildings dating from the early years of this century to 1991.

FOWLER BROTHERS, 717 West 7th St., Los Angeles

L.A.’s oldest bookstore has been a downtown institution since 1888, when it was known as the “Church and Sunday School Supply House.” Fowler Brothers also is known for its tangential role in a bit of Hollywood lore--the 1922 murder of film director William Desmond Taylor. Taylor, a Fowler regular, stopped one night to buy two copies of “Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety” by Sigmund Freud. Later, he was shot to death by an unknown assailant in his apartment at 4th and Alvarado. Actress Mabel Normand, a friend of Taylor and one-time suspect in the case, also visited the bookstore that night.

THE BODHI TREE, 8585 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles

The Bodhi hasn’t changed much since the early 1970s. The aroma of incense drifts around the store and sitar music slices the air. Visitors can still relax and do their browsing in comfortable chairs. Customers peruse vegetarian diet guides, books on holistic healing and material dealing with a wide range of spiritual and philosophical issues. The store also offers non-book items ranging from bells and flutes to herbal toothpaste.

PLANET 10, 411 E. Huntington Drive, Arcadia

Though some bookstore purists may object to the science fiction and fantasy greeting cards, toys, games, puzzles, posters and paintings offered at this store along with books, they do sell and, says owner Sharon Foster, “every little bit helps.” Planet 10 reopened four months ago after a move from Pasadena’s Old Town. The books are hardback and paperback, new and used. The new shopping center in which the store is located could be described as Neo-British Raj Colonial. Look for the giant pillars.

SPORTS BOOKS, 8761 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood

Starting a small, specialized retail bookstore in the 1990s shows all the optimism of a pint-size quarterback calling an “everybody go long” play on a muddy field at the city park. And about the same chance of success. But SportsBooks has passed its first anniversary and owners John Berylson and Art Kaminsky still think they can go all the way. They have drafted Wilt Chamberlain, John Wooden, W.P. Kinsella and Roger Kahn for book signings in recent months. SportsBooks features current books, magazines, memorabilia and collectibles.

MITCHELL BOOKS, 71395 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena

The 1930s brick building where this shop’s recessed doorway is found is a perfect setting for a shop specializing in mystery fiction--first editions, rare books and used hardcover and softcover volumes. It is the nation’s largest dealer in out-of-print mystery and crime books. One expects to see a Bogey look-alike in a tan trench coat pull aside the curtain of the second-floor apartment window above. Inside, behind the Venetian blinds hanging in the front windows, the store is narrow and deep. Far back in narrow aisles beneath old film posters are 19th-Century novels by Wilkie Collins and the latest by Sue Grafton. The mass-market paperbacks are only slightly alphabetized and the stock may be a little dusty, but there are treasures here.

BOOK ‘EM, 1118 Mission St., South Pasadena

This is another center for mystery buffs, but here everything is new--the books, the carpets, the shelving, even the cash register. Book ‘Em had only been open about a year when a fire destroyed the original South Pasadena location in the fall of 1991. The bookstore was reopened a short distance down Mission Street about six months ago. Along with mystery and suspense titles are reference books on the genre, a juvenile section and a fair number of contemporary horror novels. Book ‘Em puts strong emphasis on support for local authors. In the last few months there have been autographing sessions by Steve Allen, Jonathan Kellerman, Faye Kellerman, Robert K. Tanenbaum and anthology editor Robert Bloch.

SAN MARINO TOY & BOOK SHOPPE, 2475 Huntington Drive, San Marino

This store stands apart for its focus on books, toys, games, recordings and all manner of material for children from infancy to the teen years, as well as on books on parenting. This is a proactive bookstore, from its knowledgeable clerks to its sponsorship of school book fairs to its efforts to bring to town such authors as Jim Trelease (“The Read-Aloud Handbook”) and recording artists popular with kids, such as Canadian singer and guitarist Raffi (“Baby Beluga”).

DUTTON’S BOOKS, 5146 Laurel Canyon Blvd., N. Hollywood

This well-established bookshop near the intersection of Laurel Canyon and Magnolia boulevards has a relaxed atmosphere. The building where Dutton’s started in 1961 was in the Cape Cod Colonial style. Over the years the store has expanded twice into neighboring business spaces. Like living organisms, the books seemed to multiply and spread. Today they occupy shelves and cabinets in rooms of many shapes and sizes, including hallways, alcoves and a converted closet or two.

PACIFIC ASIA MUSEUM, 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena

This shop is the only one in Greater Los Angeles housed in an example of Chinese Imperial Palace architecture, with a traditional courtyard garden and koi pond outside. Part of a cultural center featuring galleries, classrooms, an auditorium and a library, the store features books on the art, philosophy, history and literature of Asia and the Pacific islands. Atop the ornately curved eaves and green roof tiles stand two ceramic “guardian dogs” watching for enemies, while giant stone fo dogs, resembling lions, protect the courtyard.

STEP’N STONES, 1327 Post Ave., Torrance

This shop’s owners claim it is the nation’s largest self-help and recovery-program bookstore, offering more than 3,000 book titles and 1,000 audio and videotapes dealing with topics ranging from motivation and self-esteem to addictions and dysfunctional relationships.

ACRES OF BOOKS, 240 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach

This is the Big One. Estimates of the number of books at Smith’s Acres of Books range from half a million to 750,000. They take up 6.5 miles of shelving. For nearly 30 years, Acres of Books has been in a building of the Streamline Moderne architectural style. A couple of years back, the City Council voted to make it a cultural heritage landmark. Formerly a country-music dance hall, it has horseshoes imprinted in the concrete at one entrance and a 20-foot-wide Western painting that hovers over the books. The fiction room grows so dark on overcast days that flashlights are loaned to customers.