Letter: The comforting tale of a third bookstore

Thank you for highlighting two bookstores, Bookfellows and Brand Bookshop, in November.

There also was another bookstore a few blocks south of these two and that store was the first bookstore I visited when I moved to Glendale. I was lured in by the art books displayed in its window.

It wasn’t a big store, not as big as these two, but it was stuffed with art books. An elderly gentleman with a gray beard was lounging on a comfortable armchair and a handsome dog with long white and beige fur was lying next to him. I greeted them and I was greeted back warmly. I was there not more than a few minutes when the man stood up and left, saying that he would be back. The dog just stayed where it was.

I found an interesting book about one of my favorite artists, Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. I was reading it when the man returned carrying a cup. He sold me the book at an agreeable discount.

That store is gone, but these two bookstores are places a person can spend congenial time browsing through so many books, as I do. They have knowledgeable staffs, vast inventory and fair prices, and they offer the same kind of friendly welcome and more, as did the store I used to visit. So in this season of gift-giving, the independent bookstores should be among the places to visit for gifts. Books are gifts for a lifetime; they can be read and reread, over and over.

Sarkis S. Abrahamian
Glendale