The Los Angeles Central Library

So...

As promised, here's the scoop on the Los Angeles Central Library (pictured below).

After braving the LA freeway system I finally arrived at my destination. Nestled between the moderate skyscrappers of downtown Los Angeles rests an other-wordly abode, looking more at place in the Nile of yesteryear than the urban sprawl that currently surrounds it. Much, much bigger than it appears on the outside, the downtown library is a marvel of architectural wonder, and highly recommended for anyone to visit regardless of your interest in literature, film, music, or comic books -- all of which the Downtown Library has in abundance. But if you do happen to like any of those things, then, seriously, this library is like Borders on steroids. No, wait, that sounds wrong... unclassy. A better description would be that it's everything Borders aspiries to be! In addition to all the books you could ever want, there is a very traquil garden -- an oasis from the clutter outside the metaphorical gates -- and an art gallery sponsored by the Getty itself. And if you get hungry browsing any one of the labyrinthine eight floors of books, there's a cafe on site, as well as a Panda Express (I know, weird!), a TCBY yogurt (perhaps even weirder), and a rather fitting (but expensive) sit down restaurant outside overlooking the gardens. The library even has it's own gift shop.

And did I mention the books? Everything from Ayn Rand to Zane Grey. Don't like to read? Check out the extensive audiobooks department, which is located on the first floor next to a small warehouse of DVDs and TV shows on DVD. Always wondered where I could find season two of Charles in Charge for rent! And when I say rent, I mean free rental, because, well, this is a library, after all.

On top of everything else, the staff is uber-friendly. In fact, I got into a long convo with a dude named Jeff, who recommended a few great movies to me based on my interests that day. We also ended up chatting about the Bataan death march, of all things, and how it overshadowed the far worse Massacre at Manilla, but how both of those were actually overshadowed by the Holocaust. Perhaps because of this, Jeff helped me get access to the top floor of the library, which is normally off limits without an appointment; it's where they house the rare books collection -- I guess they usually need 24 hours notice to do a background check or something before giving you access? LOL. Anyway, I had heard that the library had a copy of "The Long Walk" by Richard Bachman. In case you don't know, Bachman is the pseudonym of one Stephen King, who was forced to use it back in the day due to publishing fears about an author releasing more than one book in the same year. Since King was such a fast writer (must have been all the cocaine he admits to using then) he was prone to turn out two or even three novels a year... thus, Richard Bachman was born.

Surprisingly, "The Long Walk" is a super hard book to find. It's a cool story about a future society that decides to sponsor a marathon across the ultra-militaristic United States. Think "Survivor" meats "The Amazing Race"; Capitalism literally run amok, as the winner is basically given the keys to the kingdom, while the losers... well, I don't know because I've never been able to get my hands on it until now. Unfortunetly, you can't check it out since it's the only copy in any LA library, but it was cool just to browse through the text. Man, I sound like such a nerd, but just check out the cover!


Here's a few other pictures I snapped of things you wouldn't expect to find in this library. The quality is less than stellar, but, hey, they were taken on a cell phone with a cracked screen so I'm lucky they came out as well as they did, really.





If you take a close look at the rightside picture you can see various texts and hieroglyphics on the steps leading up to the library from the street. The whole place was actually like this, with Egyptian statues, paintings and symbols sprinkled throughout. At times, I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones adventure... or, more appropriately perhaps, an Allan Quartermann novel.

But why should I ruin all the fun? Check it out for yourself if you're in LA. Trust me, there's much, much more to explore. Just keep in mind, it's LA, so parking is expensive. They have to pay for the books somehow, right?