Mood Music, Coffee--Even Books--Accent Valley Bookstores

Purveyors of pulp fiction and other printed material are practicing a new form of seduction on what appears to be an appreciative book-buying public.

Booksellers are luring in customers with free parking, tepid tunes, special-interest groups and cappuccino or latte (half-caffeine, half-decaffeinated, nonfat milk with cinnamon, please).

Take the new, 30,000-square-foot Barnes & Noble that opened last November in Encino. It offers comfortable sofas for perusing potential purchases, soft music, a variety of chat groups and a semi-ttached Starbucks for close encounters of the coffee kind.

All that’s in addition to about 250,000 or so odd--and mainstream--titles, as well as a computer software department.

So far, no dancing girls and party favors. But who knows?

Pampering patrons with a special ambience or extra services is nothing new for local independent booksellers.

Dutton’s in North Hollywood, for example, has long been a hangout for those inclined to be literary loiterers among the cramped shop’s treasure trove of new and used volumes.

Pages Books for Children & Young Adults in Tarzana has always offered storytelling and other youth-oriented programs.

Even many of the local libraries offer storytelling, special programs and comfy chairs in which to curl up.

Barnes & Noble, however, has created a sort of theme park for the literati. Take, for example, its array of interest groups.

The biography group meets the third Monday of the month. The current-fiction folks meet on the third Tuesday of the month. Play reading is the third Wednesday of the month. Classic fiction meets the fourth Monday of the month. All at 7:30 p.m.

There is also a women’s group and a group for music appreciation.

Events for children include a monthly “Goose Bumps” reading. The next one is at 7 p.m. Thursday.

All the groups are free.

Lita Weissman, the community outreach coordinator for the Encino Barnes & Noble, says this employment of multi-opportunities is probably the wave of the future for bookstores.

All the establishment needs now is a blazing fire and the gentle tap of rain on the roof.

On second thought, cancel the rain.

One Horse Tale With a Happy Ending

Two days after an injured bay gelding was featured in this column this month, Equus member Linda Moss rescued the horse from a holding pen in San Bernardino.

She says she was able to do so because of the response of readers, who donated the $500 needed to liberate the animal. And, she says, many more people pledged support and help.

Equus is a group of Valleyites who save horses from being sent to a slaughterhouse in Texas. There the animals are killed and their meat sent to Europe, where it is considered a delicacy.

Equus, according to Moss, neither rents nor sells the rescued animals. “We rent a facility where we keep the horses, including racehorses, stable rental horses or people’s pets, to live out their lives in peace,” Moss says.

“We don’t ask anything from them. They have already given their human owners their all,” she says.

The plight of the animals evidently touched a sympathetic chord with many readers.

“We had such a response I haven’t had time to call back all those who tried to contact us with offers of help,” Moss says, adding that she hopes people will understand.

She says part of the problem is that Equus consists of only a handful of volunteers who try to raise the money to pay for the feeding and care of the 250 horses the group has rescued in the past few years. The group also must pay the salary of a ranch hand who oversees the operation.

“Most of us in the group spend all of our spare time with the horses, or are out begging for money,” according to Moss, who adds that she is trying to put together a larger volunteer group to help with fund raising.

“We have received helpful information about fund aising from a couple of organizations that are trying to show us how to make contact with potential donors, and we are grateful for their understanding of, and support for, what we are trying to do,” she says.

For those who called The Times in frustration, saying that they wanted to help but could not reach the group, the telephone number is (818) 768-3469.

“That’s just an answering machine. We don’t have any staff to answer phones,” Moss says, “but if people leave a message and number, one of us will call back.”

Antelope Valley Chamber Takes a Crack at Crab

Palmdale residents have been warned about an invasion of crabs coming late next month.

It’s not exactly a medical emergency.

Or a monster movie in the making.

The local chamber of commerce is having its annual dance and crab crack at the Palmdale Cultural Center on April 21.

There must be a lot of crabby Antelopeans because more than 200 people are expected to tie on their bibs and dig into a plateful of succulent Pacific Northwest Dungeness cracked crab at what has become an annual event.

After the feast (and a quick wash-up, one would hope), diners may dance to the music of Jim Harper’s Touch of Class band.

It is not a coincidence that Harper is the three-time chairman of this event, as it was he who found out about the joys of communal crabbing while playing for some Moose and Elk.

“Crab cracks are popular with service organizations, and the band I play with happened to be at an Elk dinner about five years ago, when I learned how simple the arrangements are,” says Harper, a full-time realtor and part-time drummer.

“There is a company that supplies the fresh flown-in-from-the-Northwest crab, as well as an entire party kit, so the arrangements are relatively simple,” he says.

The Pacific Crab Co. sends along suggestions for side dishes as well as the crab bibs and crab crackers and, of course, the crustaceans themselves, according to Harper, who says chamber members deserve to have some fun.

“We spend most of our time on business issues, networking and fund raising for our charities,” says Harper, “so this just-for-fun event is something everyone enjoys.”

Harper says the man and woman who sell the most $17.95 tickets will be named king and queen of the event and suitable crowns bestowed in a coronation ceremony.

The crowns, according to Harper, are giant crabs with claws hanging down on all sides. “At the first crowning, people were sort of embarrassed to be wearing the crowns until they got into the spirit of it,” says Harper.

Oh, really?

Maybe it was the warm, drawn butter dripping down their faces.

Guess it helps to bring your sense of humor, and a finger bowl.

Overheard:

“Mother, MOTHER! Are you wearing my push-up bra again? The one you made fun of me for buying?!”

Teen-ager to her mother in Encino (who was as guilty as sin).