Clearly visiting a book store wherever I go is in the cards. My last couple of trips to San Diego have been pretty short and I haven’t had the opportunity to get to any. Alas, Thanksgiving weekend gave me just that chance. Rather than going to laugh and gawk at the morons who chose to shop at the big box retailers on black Friday, I opted to go to La Jolla and watch all the fancy pants San Diegans do their shopping at overpriced boutiques. Ok, that wasn’t the real drive behind my visit to La Jolla. My main objective was visiting Warwicks which is located on Girard Ave. in the heart of La Jolla.
Having grown up in San Diego I’ve pretty much blanked on what and where the independent booksellers are in San Diego. I mean as a kid I remember always going to Barnes & Noble to look at the magazines but I really can’t remember going to any independents, besides my mothers store of course. And frankly, back then, going to a bookstore to look at books was pretty much the last thing I had on my mind. Unless I knew there was a cute girl working there or something. When I got home (SD) on this mini-vacation I asked my mom and the only one she came up with was Warwicks. My dad mentioned a mystery book store and maybe one of these days I’ll get around to reviewing that shop as well.
Warwicks, aside from being a fairly large bookseller is also a stationary, gift and office supply shop. It’s more or less broken in half, with half the shop being books and the other half being the other stuff. Honestly, I spent about 4.37965 seconds on the stationary side, frankly I wasn’t interested. It looked a bit kitschy, with glass cases protecting expensive chotskies and who knows whats. I did however spend a good amount of time on the book side. Personally, I think they should abandon the other stuff and just enlarge the book store, just my two cents.
I must say the store actually felt fairly cramped. They had so many damn books in such a tight area. I mean the store is big, but not nearly big enough. I would be worried if they didn’t have that space crammed though, it would kind of imply that they were a crummy store, which they are not. One of the things I liked most about the way they have the store laid out is the visibility of books. I really appreciate it when bookstores display books on tables with their front facing out as opposed to sideways in a bookshelf. It really does make finding what you’re looking for easier as well as helps you make impulse purchases (clearly why most stores do it).
As it turns out my mother is actually friends with someone who works at Warwicks and as a result she and I were fortunate enough to be taken to the back of the bookstore and allowed to peruse some of the ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies). Unfortunately I didn’t find any there that interested me but my mom picked up three I think, which was a good little pull for her. Oh, and the fact that a friend of my mothers works there clearly denotes that they hire very intelligent/bookish people.
I wouldn’t want you to think I walked out without buying a couple books now would I? For awhile I walked around the store carrying about 5 but then whittled it down to two and walked out with A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz and El Monstruo by John Ross. Be on the lookout for those reviews in the near future.
So, here’s what you’ve been kind of waiting for, the pictures:
Front of Warwicks, and yes there are two gentlemen playing chess in front.
Interior of the store as you enter through the stationary side.
The lovely and easily discernible displays I mentioned (you'd know what I'm talking about if you read the post).
Books (kind of obvious isn't it)
A small selection of the stores ARCs (advanced reading copies). Yeah, we're cool like that.
