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<div class="at-above-post-homepage addthis_tool" data-url="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/indie-bookstores/oof-books-los-angeles/"></div>This store is no longer an active participant in LARB&#8217;s Reckless Reader program. <a href="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/category/recklessreader/">Click here</a> for our current partner stores for a 10% discount on books. If you aren’t a member and would like to receive this discount and many other perks, <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/join/">join today</a>!
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An Edward Ruscha painting hangs in the Museum of Modern Art called “OOF.” Over a midnight blue background, three yellow block letters pop out in all capitals: OOF. It’s silly and fun, this rendering of an onomatopoetic comic book grunt. There is a pleasing geometry to the solidness and straight edges of the F next to the perfect circles of the Os.  It’s the kind of painting that brightens your day, that makes you a little happier. It has a certain “OOF-ness” about it.
A lot of us, whether we know it or not, are chasing “OOF-ness” in a relatively “OOF-less” world. As of last year, finding some became quite a bit easier. Christie Hayden opened OOF Books, the bookstore-art gallery hybrid in Cypress Park last July. The owner’s previous project was Bookish, a mobile art bookstore in Baltimore. OOF’s small space, unlike the converted box truck that housed Bookish, has zero wheels, but it does have geometric yellow shelves that remind one of Ruscha’s lemon letters. Hayden told me that the “brick and mortar model makes a lot more sense for Los Angeles where people are innately more mobile: it allows for the act of discovery.”
So what does OOF have to discover? The store stocks visual art books, books and zines from local LA presses and art book makers, used key art readings, rare books, and generally, things printed on paper. They host book launches and art exhibitions. The exhibitions are changed every month and are mostly solo shows for local LA artists, although this month the store will host a performance piece and installation by a New York artist. Last year, around the holidays, the store hosted ceramics artist Phill Kim for a one-day residency.
Despite being only a little over a year old, OOF seems to have found its place very quickly. The store was featured as a T: New York Times Style Magazine Editor’s Pick. It’s a place for art enthusiasts, but also for those who just wander in, discovering the store and its well curated cadmium yellow shelves for the first time. A place where you find yourself unable to resist thumbing through all of the colorful covers and glossy pages it has to offer. Once you start, you’ll almost certainly happen upon a book on Henri Matisse that you just have to get for your Fauvism-loving mother, or maybe a book on Cy Twombly for your too-cool, La Croix-drinking roommate, or a book of fashion photography that your best friend would just die for. Soon, you will have discovered two or three or maybe seven books that you need. And without even noticing it, spending an afternoon paging through art books in a little, yellow bookstore, you will have discovered some of that elusive “OOF-ness” as well.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-9076" src="http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/img_3178-copy-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="750" srcset="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/img_3178-copy-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/img_3178-copy-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/img_3178-copy-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/img_3178-copy.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" />
Not a member and want to receive special benefits and discounts at OOF and other participating stores? <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/membership/">Become a member</a> and we’ll send you a Reckless Reader card and all the perks!
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OOF Books in Los Angeles

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<div class="at-above-post-homepage addthis_tool" data-url="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/recklessreader/raven-book-store-lawrence-kansas/"></div>In Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, private detective Sam Spade explains to femme fatale Brigid O’Shaughnessy:
When a man&#8217;s partner is killed, he&#8217;s supposed to do something about it. It doesn&#8217;t make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you&#8217;re supposed to do something about it. Then it happens we were in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it&#8217;s bad business to let the killer get away with it.
The Raven Book Store borrows three things from Hammett: a dedication to mystery and crime fiction; the name Dashiell for one of their cats (the other is named Ngaoi after Ngaoi Marsh); and this “detective business” logic which they apply to the books business.
Founded in Lawrence, Kansas in 1987 by Mary Lou Wright and Pat Kedhe, The Raven has never let independent bookselling falter in its Midwestern city. Originally a specialty mystery bookstore, The Raven began to stock general interest titles after other Lawerence independent booksellers were forced to close. When the store was finally confronted with “the killer,” in the form of a Borders opening across the street, the people of Lawrence took a stand against corporate mega-bookstores. On the bookstore chain’s opening day, The Raven had its biggest day of sales in its history. The empty building that housed Borders can still be seen from the place behind The Raven’s cash register.
<figure id="attachment_9026" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9026" style="width: 250px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9026 size-full" src="http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/image.png" alt="" width="250" height="375" srcset="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/image.png 250w, https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/image-200x300.png 200w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9026" class="wp-caption-text">The Raven&#8217;s cat Dashiell</figcaption></figure>
Although The Raven is now over 30 years old and carrying books of all genres, the current owner, Danny Caine, says that there are still remnants of the original “mystery era” of the store, more than just the cats with noir novelist namesakes. The store still hosts two mystery book clubs in addition to a general fiction and nonfiction book group.
The current era of the store boasts less about hardboiled fiction hardcovers and more about a strong commitment to the Lawrence community. Partnering with the University of Kansas and the Lawrence Public Library, the store hosts readings, author events, and more. An especially popular event is the POC led open mic night, dubbed “Mic Supremacy.” The Raven also joint sponsors the “Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award” with the Lawrence Arts Center, an award for writers living in the Douglas County area.
In the current, often troubling, state of the world, crime fiction and mystery novels are good for the soul. They delve into and spit back our fears and anxieties, but hold the promise of narrative resolution. Even better for the soul is supporting an independently owned bookstore that brings good to its community. Why not try both? At The Raven, you don’t have to choose.
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Not a member and want to receive special benefits and discounts at Raven and other participating stores? <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/membership/">Become a member</a> and we’ll send you a Reckless Reader card and all the perks!
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The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas

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<div class="at-above-post-homepage addthis_tool" data-url="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/recklessreader/stories-bookstore-cafe-los-angeles/"></div>The first time that I visited Stories Bookstore and Café in Echo Park, I left with a brown paper bag containing a slice of vegan lemon cake with pink frosting and, in a slightly larger brown paper bag, a new copy of Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem. To me, a Midwest girl who had been living in Los Angeles for just shy of two weeks, the purchases felt symbolic. With the two parcels tucked under my arm, I felt that I had my own bit of California. The thought flitted away as I sat in traffic for the next hour and seven minutes, but it was a thought that Stories created for me.
Upon entering its doors, you are immediately struck with the overwhelming impression that this is a Los Angeles bookstore, and it’s not just because of the well-curated section of Angeleno history and fiction. Stories is a type of bookstore that I could never find back home or on the East Coast. The bookseller and café combo doesn’t take itself too seriously. Although its towering shelves, jammed with new and used books, boast an impressive collection of everything that you should be reading, the stocking feels personal and the shelves are packed snugly in the front of the store to make room for the café area. Tables and chairs are clustered around the bar, spaced just far enough apart to allow for a pathway out to the sunlit patio. How can one be a literary snob when eating a delicious, two-egg breakfast burrito in the golden hours of mid-morning?
<img loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-8481 aligncenter" src="http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/storieswebthirtyone-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427" srcset="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/storieswebthirtyone-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/storieswebthirtyone-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/storieswebthirtyone-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
All of the tables were occupied when I first visited, despite the fact that it was two in the afternoon on a weekday. As I wound my way through the crowded area, I overheard conversations about books, song lyrics, the trendiness of certain hats, upcoming film releases, and more. Stories attracts all kinds of artists and art consumers. Their events include not only author readings and book release parties, but film screenings, performance groups, magic shows, comedy shows, musical performances, and storytelling events. As always, the audience is fortified with snacks, coffee, beer, and wine from the café.
Aptly named, Stories uses storytelling and literature as a foundation for all of the different kinds of art and creating that it hosts within its walls. It invites customers to stay and read for a while, to find something that they weren’t looking for. So stop by, buy a book and a gluten free brownie bite and find yourself at an interactive poetry reading or an indie rock performance. It’ll be a good story.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-8482" src="http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/storieswebfortyone-664x1024.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="617" srcset="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/storieswebfortyone-664x1024.jpg 664w, https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/storieswebfortyone-194x300.jpg 194w, https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/storieswebfortyone-768x1185.jpg 768w, https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/storieswebfortyone.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" />
Not a member and want to receive special benefits and discounts at Stories and other participating stores? <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/membership/">Become a member</a> and we’ll send you a Reckless Reader card and all the perks!
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Stories Bookstore and Café in Los Angeles

Sophia Marusic is an intern at The Los Angeles Review of Books. She studies English and is completing pre-med coursework at Princeton University. She enjoys swimming, science fiction, and writing her own reviews at studyhallreviews.tumblr.com.