Long days, beach weekends – summer’s here, which means there’s plenty of
time to catch up on some reading. W asked four of our favorite
bookstores for their best sellers and top picks on what to peruse
between now and Labor Day.Book Soup may be the only spot on the Sunset Strip where agency bigs and struggling actors actually inhabit the same space, at the same time, for more than a few seconds. The reason: the bookstore’s eclectic mix of titles and speakers, who range from Ed Ruscha to RuPaul. “Our bookstore is not, like, whatever sells on The New York Times best-seller list,” says buyer Tosh Berman. “Our store is almost an alternative universe to a lot of other book stores.” Berman gave us a peek inside.
“Just Kids” (Ecco) by Patti Smith is doing incredibly well here. For our
clientele it’s a classic book. Another great book is “Parisians: An
Adventure History of Paris” (W.W. Norton & Company), by Graham Robb,
which describes key moments in Paris’s history, from Napoleon to
Sarkozy. Another book is “Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood”
(Flammarion), which is basically about Hopper’s taste. It’s a really
nice catalogue of his world. “A Splendid Conspiracy” (New Directions
Publishing) by Albert Cossery is fascinating. It’s about three Egyptian
characters who have a slightly erotic adventure in Cairo.
