Village Books in Pacific Palisades: 14 Years From the First Book to the Last

Illustration by Jim Rugg

​
In our print edition's monthly books section, David Kipen writes an elegy to the recently-closed Village Books in Pacific Palisades, and talks about his special connection to the store's history: he purchased its first book 14 years ago, and recently found himself purchasing its last.

I asked myself which book would make the most fitting final purchase. The buzzards had long since started circling, so the remaining books were already huddling toward the middle shelves, hemmed in by vacant plywood on all sides. When I hit Mark Sarvas up for a suggestion, that sly blogger at the Elegant Variation -- with unnerving speed, as if he'd already somehow had the question leaked to him -- pointed discreetly toward a copy of Philip Roth's The Dying Animal.

Read the full feature here: Village Books in Pacific Palisades, From Its First Book to the Last