Students and residents of Westwood wouldn’t know it now,
but the Village used to be filled with bookstores.
A new bookstore opened in Westwood last month. Eastwind Books
and Arts, originally from San Francisco, opened their second store
on Sept. 27 in its new location on Westwood Boulevard.
Eastwind is a specialty bookstore, offering a wide selection of
Asian literature, ranging from language instruction, poetry, art,
Confucian philosophy, Feng shui architecture, to medical
dictionaries, and Chinese law and business books. Most of these
books are bilingual, written in Chinese and English, but the store
also sells books by Japanese, Korean and Pilipino authors.
“UCLA has a large Asian population, most of whom emigrated
to the States when they were young or were born here, so they
should be interested in learning about their own (parent’s)
culture,” said Joanne Tsui, supervisor of the Westwood
store.
Tsui believes that the westside’s large Asian population
has been under-served by large chain bookstores that don’t
cater specifically to Asians. She noted that Barnes and Noble
doesn’t have an Asian studies section in their stores.
Tsui said approximately 20 percent of the books in the store are
written in Chinese, the rest for the most part being bilingual in
Chinese and English. The bilingual books could be of further
interest to those who are trying to brush up on their Chinese, Tsui
said.
“Since we are a specialty store, we will hopefully attract
some westerners who are interested in Asian culture and Asian
Americans,” Tsui said.
Eastwind also sells decorative items. This weekend the store
exhibited the work of Hong Kong artist Ah-Chung. Ah-Chung’s
watercolor paintings have Chinese inscriptions illustrating the
artwork’s philosophy.
Westwood’s other bookstore had a big weekend also. The
Mystery Bookstore held a party last Saturday in celebration of
their second year of business on Broxton Avenue. The store was
packed, many coming in anticipation of having a book signed by one
of more than thirty mystery writers visiting throughout the
day.
One of the writers included Ray Bradbury, the world famous
science fiction and fantasy author of such books as Fahrenheit
451.
The store originally opened and operated in West Hollywood for
12 years, but relocated to Westwood two years ago at a time when no
bookstores were left in the Village. Sheldon MacArthur, manager of
the store, UCLA graduate and Westwood resident since his childhood,
recalls when the Village had up to nine bookstores at one time.
“Bookstores were an integral part of Westwood from its
inception until the late ’80s,” MacArthur said.
“When we were full of independent and specialty bookstores,
people came to Westwood because it was the book and cultural center
of L.A.,” MacArthur said.
But over time independent bookstores were gradually pushed out.
MacArthur refers to a period in the mid-seventies as the first
“crash,” when chain stores such as B.Dalton and Waldon
books with lower prices and greater variety undercut the
independents’ share of the market.
During the ’80s, with the proliferation of cinema screens
and an increasingly youth-driven entertainment economy, landlords
believed they had a gold mine on their hands. Rents soon
skyrocketed and the bookstores, having a narrow profit margin,
couldn’t keep up.
“UCLA is one of the largest universities in the country
with the fewest bookstores in it’s surrounding area,”
MacArthur said, adding that he believes one of the keys to making
the Village vibrant again will be bringing in unique, niche
businesses.