Apr 24 2008
Two More So Cal Bookstores Face Closure
GUESTS: Doug Dutton, owner of Dutton’s Books in Brentwood, Rueben Martinez, Literacy Advocate, owner of Libreria Martinez,
As the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is set to take place this weekend, two Southern California independent bookstores face closure. Dutton’s Books in Brentwood is set to close its doors on April 30th after having been a literary fixture in Los Angeles since 1984. Redevelopment plans, debt, rising rent, the presence of amazon.com and chains like Barnes and Nobles have overwhelmed these small bookstores. Sadly, Dutton’s joins scores of independent bookstores that have gone out of business such as Midnight Special on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, 33 1/3 Books in Echo Park, and Sisterhood Bookstore in Westwood. Further south, Libreria Martinez in Santa Ana is trying to stave off a possible closure. A fixture in the low-income, mostly Latino neighborhood, the bilingual bookstore has been around since 1993, run by barber-turned book seller and MacArthur Genius award recipient Rueben Martinez. Over the years, Libreria Martinez has hosted renowned Latin American and Chicano authors like Carlos Fuentes, Sandra Cisneros, Laura Esquivel, and Isabel Allende. A literacy advocate who has traveled across the country and overseas, Martinez is hoping to avoid the closing of his store so that it might be around for as long as the one-hundred year old barber chair that sits in his office.
Dutton’s Brentwood is located at 11975 San Vicente Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90049. Website: www.duttonsbrentwood.com, Tel: 310-476-6263
Libreria Martinez is located at 1110 N. Main Street, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Website: www.latinobooks.com, Tel: 714-973-7900
One Response to “Two More So Cal Bookstores Face Closure”
[…] people as possible know about the situation. I called Rueben Martinez and asked if he could come on Uprising to inform our listeners about the prospects for the bookstore’s future. He agreed and with […]