Los Angeles is a city known for many things, beautiful people, sunny beaches and great sports teams. But for many, literature is not the first thing that comes to mind.
The perfect alliteration that is created between the words Los Angeles and literature may suggest a connection between literature and the City of Angels, but is Los Angeles a true literary city?
Historically LA is associated with Hollywood,
said Evan Kindley in an interview. Kindley is the senior editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Many of the writers that found themselves in Los Angeles had moved from other places to work in the movie industry, and much of the literary style associated with the city was noir and fiction.
Today, even when you ask people to say what LA means literarily that's what they think of,
said Kindley.
In the past Hollywood had dominated the city's literary scene, but what does LA's literary culture look like today?
While the literary scene is still filled with people who are working in Hollywood or the entertainment industry, other groups have emerged that have helped create the modern literary community of Los Angeles.
All of the universities have great writers working for them,
says Kindley.
Organizations like the Los Angeles Review of Books have also helped to build the modern literary community of Los Angeles.
The knock against LA is that its literary culture was too Hollywood, but that narrative is slowly changing with the help of local universities and organizations.
LA is a great literary city, it is a very welcoming and vital place for writers and it is starting to be thought of that way outside of the city and outside of California,
Kindley said.
The city is home to many world-class writers. Some of the writers that call Los Angeles home are Juan Felipe Herrera, current U.S. poet laureate, Geoff Dyer and Mona Davis.
Los Angeles is a literary city, but where are the residents getting their literature? Examining media reports today it would be easy to assume that the number of young book readers is declining, and that independent bookstores are becoming extinct, but recent studies suggest otherwise.
According to the National Endowment for the Arts, in 2002, 52 percent of 18-24 year-olds in America read a book outside of their jobs or school. However, these were days before Facebook had emerged on the scene.
Even with the creation of Facebook the percentage of young adult readers who read literature outside of what is required for their jobs or academic life has remained the same for the past 13 years.
In 2012 the amount of bookstores in the state of California was 1,185 according to Publishers Weekly, a magazine that highlights the world of international book publishing.
Currently, bookstores in general have taken a big hit from Amazon and online retailing of books,
said Kindley.
Chain bookstores, such as Barnes &Noble have been devastated by the advent of the e-book industry, an industry that is expected to grow to $8.69 billion in 2018, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a professional services network.
But even in this climate, independent bookstores are making a comeback. The e-book industry has actually created a vacuum that independent bookstores have filled,
says Kindley.
It was the big chain stores that got driven out of business by the Internet, not the smaller mom and pop stores,
he said.
Today, book lovers across the city of Los Angeles have the opportunity to shop at a variety of independent bookstores in the downtown area. Stores like The Last Bookstore and Caravan Book Store have been filling the shopping void for Angelenos looking for good books.
Leonard Bernstein, owner of Caravan Book Store believes that bookstores still hold a special place in society and that they are more valued now then they have ever been.
Bernstein believes that literary culture in Los Angeles is alive and well and that now more than ever bookstores are being appreciated.