Six Los Angeles Bookstores for The Francophile Bibliophile

Lately, a French Morning reporter, Alexis Chenu, scoured the cabinets of Los Angeles bookstores in the hunt for books in French. In his quest, he discovered the good classics, from Honoré de Balzac to Flaubert, and even somewhat Johnny Hallyday.

Right here is his choice for studying French in Tinseltown.

Skylights Books

Within the fashionable Los Feliz neighborhood, this impartial bookstore (shut in geography to the Lycée Worldwide de Los Angeles) has a big choice of novels, essays, journey guides and youngsters’s books. Tucked away are two cabinets solely devoted to French literature. There  one can discover most of the classics, from Flaubert to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Jean-Paul Sartre to Marguerite Duras, and in addition a brand new technology of writers. A few of the most intriguing: Chanson Douce by Leila Slimani, Prix Goncourt 2016; Baise-moi by Virginie Despentes; Petit Pays by Gael Faye and L’élégance du Hérisson by Muriel Barbery.

Skylights Books, 1818 North Vermont Ave., Los Feliz. Open Monday via Saturday from 10am to 10pm, Sunday from 12pm to 10pm.

Counterpoint Data & Books

This Franklin Village handle is near Hollywood and has been upcycling books on philosophy, literature, structure and cinema since 1979. It additionally boasts near 50 bins of vinyl and a CD and cassette tape division. Hidden away, the “Overseas Languages” part has an excellent handful of books, most of them in French and Spanish. Principally they promote the good classics of French literature with Balzac, Flaubert and Colette taking middle stage. Additionally some Aragon, Apollinaire, Feydeau, a number of copies of Bescherelles and dog-eared French translations of Jane Austen  populating the cabinets.

Counterpoint Records & Books, 5911 Franklin Avenue. Open from 12pm to 7pm, Friday and Saturday till 8pm. Closed on Monday.

Alliance Française de Los Angeles

The Alliance Française de Los Angeles has its personal bookstore. Greater than 70 books can be found on website (you possibly can order over e-mail). There are the good requirements of French literature (Colette, Daudet, Proust, Maupassant, Pagnol…) but in addition some extra up to date bestsellers similar to these of Edouard Louis (En Finir Avec Eddy Belle Gueule), Christine Angot (L’inceste) or Amélie Nothomb (Ni d’Eve ni d’Adam) and, for kids (or the perennial adolescent), The Adventures of Asterix and Obelix. The library additionally presents 3,000 books to borrow, together with 1,000 books reserved for kids; all are free for members.

Alliance Française de Los Angeles, 10390 Santa Monica Boulevard. Open Monday via Thursday from 9am to 8pm, Friday and Saturday from 9am to 5pm, Sunday from 9am to 1pm.

Arcana: Books of the Arts

True to Culver Metropolis’s vibe, this bookstore opened in a former mattress manufacturing facility and has each an industrial and a useful spirit the place you could find books on artwork, images, design or vogue in an ethereal area. The choice in French is tiny however contains some uncommon titles primarily from museum catalogs and books. Selections of the second: Symbolism from the Petit Palais or American Artists on the 1900 World’s Honest. 

Arcana: Books of the Arts, 8675 Washington Boulevard, Culver Metropolis. Open from 11am to 7pm.

The Final Bookstore

Downtown, this iconic Los Angeles handle lends extra to the air of organized bazaar than bibilotheque. However, nonetheles, dozens of consumers come to browse and browse, some hiding in a “Overseas Language” part deep within the labyrinth on the primary flooring (simply after the designer boutiques and exhibition areas). These 4 cabinets are very troublesome to seek out however it’s the place novels and essays of all genres, languages and intervals are combined collectively. But when the ersatz and esoteric is your factor, you could find a variety “one of the best” diets in keeping with Karl Lagerfeld;  Nadja by André Breton, The Historical past of Theater from the Que sais-je? collection; or the tribute to Johnny Hallyday, Insurgent Lover, by the biographer of French stars, Bernard Violet.

The Last Bookstore, 453 South Spring road, Downtown. Open from 11am to 8pm.

Guide Soup

This flagship bookstore of  hipster West Hollywood has a spare French part “to be enriched within the coming months,” no matter meaning. We’ll control this handle. However, within the meantime, you possibly can all the time go away with some French magazines similar to Level de Vue, Elle, Monsieur or Marie-Claire Maison.

Book Soup, 8818 Sundown Boulevard, West Hollywood. Open from 10am to 7pm, Sunday from 11am to 7pm.

Translated from the original French Morning article for Frenchly.