Few things are better than celebrating Indie Bookstore Day with a bunch of literati in an independent bookstore—which is exactly what Alta Journal got to do on Saturday, April 27. We celebrated this annual holiday, along with Alta’s Issue 27, in partnership with a favorite SoCal spot, Pages: A Bookstore. Just two blocks up from the coastline, this Manhattan Beach shop celebrated throughout the day, welcoming local kids for a community storytime, greeting eager shoppers, and, of course, hosting an intimate group of dedicated Alta readers.
Independent Bookstore Day began in 2012, following the hit model of Record Store Day, which was intended to build solidarity among independently owned brick-and-mortar shops while promoting conscious consumerism and creating community in the internet age. More compact cities like San Francisco and Seattle have taken the holiday by storm, organizing multiple bookstore crawls with pub stops in between and sometimes including even llamas and firefighters to spice things up (see Bookshop West Portal’s rendition).
The sprawling layout of Los Angeles and the inevitable afternoon bouts of bumper-to-bumper traffic have historically presented challenges to the holiday. Linda McLoughlin Figel, Pages’s cofounder, has been working hard to give the program a boost and is looking to eventually organize a citywide crawl, where shoppers will overcome the city’s obstacles to show their commitment to their local indies. On Saturday, however, this commitment was palpable. Throughout the day, the store maintained a long line at the register, and Alta readers traveled all the way from the Eastside to buy books, celebrate the magazine, and bask in the Manhattan Beach sun.
After a warm welcome from the store’s general manager, Jeff Resnik, Alta’s editorial director, Blaise Zerega, played the event’s MC, introducing three readers and moderating a collaborative Alta crossword activity with the crowd.
Santi Elijah Holley began by reading “The Old Man and the Sea,” a contemplative piece about the trials and tribulations of learning how to surf in middle age. As Holley recounted how he questioned his motivations to endure wipeouts and underwater somersaults, the audience could hear the beach’s crashing waves in the background.
Victoria Patterson read from “Basement Buddies,” which chronicles her observations of the oddities and academic etiquette of writing in the stacks of the Huntington Library. Lastly, comedian and writer George Chen read his newsletter piece “V. Vale’s Notes from Underground,” which profiles the life and legacy of San Francisco’s legendary punk rock publisher. Apt for Indie Bookstore Day, the piece is a love letter to countercultural publishing and zine making, even in today’s world.
As has become practice at Alta issue parties, the readings were followed by a fascinating Q&A with the audience. The contributors discussed their own early writing memories (both Holley and Chen made zines in high school), the threats posed by AI, and the value of standing firm in their craft despite these changes. Holley explained that “as long as we have good readers, we’ll always have good writers.” Zerega agreed, telling the crowd, “By virtue of being here today, we’re showing that this is important, that this matters. I always encourage people—if you believe in it, support it.”
In the spirit of Independent Bookstore Day, the afternoon closed with a celebratory raffle featuring a Pages gift card, cap, and mug. Pulling from a handful of attendees, mostly Alta subscribers, Zerega was pleased to select an Alta newbie, a man named Morris Brown who had found the event through the Pages newsletter.
“It was actually all so much more than I expected,” said Brown. “I got a quick email from Pages, and I came down and was so pleasantly surprised by all the great literary folks you have here. And I loved the interactivity with the audience. I just really had a blast.”
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