Angel City Bookstore & Gallery

I’m a fan of Angel City Bookstore primarily for their vinyl collection. First, its the only real place that sells used vinyl in Santa Monica or Venice. Second, the selection is very good. Yes, its expensive, but there are deals to be had. If nothing else, if you know what you’re looking at, the prices are often times fair and/​or better than ordering online (esp for the rarer stuff). Its supremely well organized and the selection is diverse. Rock, Blues, Reggae, Punk, Country, Jazz… its all here. I pop in every month or so and its impressive the way Rocco manages to get refreshed rare punk in on a regular basis (not to mention everything else). I like knowing I’m supporting a local, independently owned business in this part of town where everything seems to becoming more and more homogenized.
In the couple of years I’ve been shopping here I’ve scored a US first pressing of Black Flag’s Slip It In, Pearl Jam’s Vs, a wickedly rare Japanese hardcore compilation with Lip Cream and Gauze, Monk’s Criss Cross and an original copy of Leonard Cohen’s Death of a Ladies Man (A personal favorite of mine).
This shop rules and its a great place to lose yourself and relax. Highly recommended.

An excellent, well-​organized used bookstore. Very reasonably priced. Has a large section devoted to «philosophy» but I did not peruse it. Highly recommended. Very convenient Santa Monica location to other shops and restaurants.

The best bookstore in town. Such a special spot. Rocco is awesome. The selection is great. I love this place.

The only authentic place I’ve been on my trip to Los Angeles. I got to talk about authors I love with the proprietor and he gave me recommendations for other books I might love. After coming here, I feel grounded after a day of dodging tourists.

Highly curated book and LP store. Place is packed to the gills. If I had more patience I would have wandered around more but my boyfriend really dug it. A nice respite from busy Main Street.

This place is always an eclectic pleasure. I highly recommend this place if you are in need of a cool place to chill and work on paperwork, thesis’, etc.

My definition of a perfect used bookstore because it has character, lots of books and book sections, and a cool guy who runs the shop. Has a well maintained feeling to it. Thumbs up for having books on spiritual subjects, grammar, and the art of writing. Thank you.

My favorite place to go for used records. The guy knows a lot about classic rock and blues. He seems to be selective about what he puts out there and it shows. The prices are about the same as bigger stores, but you waste a lot less time fumbling through modern retro prints and more time finding good, classic, often rare music. Definitely recommended.

One thing about small used bookstores, and bookstores in general, they are getting as rare as hens teeth in many places but, if you look hard enough, you can still find one of these little cultural treasure troves and that holds true for Angel City Bookstore. The book selection definitely seems to lean toward the intellectual with one hell of a philosophy section, though there is a number of other options, including some historical versions of children’s novels that would be fun to own if book collecting is your hobby. I actually picked up a copy of Jane Jacobs seminal work on urban planning, The Life and Death of Cities. It was basically a new hard cover, with a list price at about $ 22 and I ended up getting it for $ 15 and change, so an excellent deal.
The store also has a an excellent collection of vinyl for those who are more musically inclined and I bet it as every bit eclectic as the book selection. Whatever you purchase feel free to take it over to the indie coffee shop right next door and hang out with it for a bit, and they have shelves of books there as well, that you can purchase as well. Oh, and they serve breakfast all day — what more could you want if you just want to hang out in beautiful Santa Monica

What a cute used bookstore! I found so many great books and they truly have some rare collections… even signed books, too! And records… so many records if you are looking for some classics!
I love finding used bookstores and giving books instead of cards… I found myself in the area and decided to stop for a quick look and spent an hour there! So many great books to read and pretty good prices. I love supporting local businesses and this one gets my approval! The service is awesome.
Parking, can be challenging… it’s metered parking and it can be full because of all the businesses in the area… don’t be discouraged… something opens up eventually!

Great used book store. Large philosophy section (though much of it is literary theory/​criticism and continental philosophy and sociology) and small but good selection of French literature. I check out the dollar rack every time I walk by and often find gems.

Great bookstore, great selection, decent prices, good ownership. Worth the visit.

This place has every record that’s considered a classic, and for good reason: they probably never sell the records on their shelves. Queen, acdc, led zeppelin, they’re all here and they’re all averaging at $ 30 a record and some are upwards of 80. Not rare test presses or anything collectible. Anyone who would buy a record here is a fool — there’s 30+ other record stores in LA and there’s eBay. Yeah that’s right, prices are higher than eBay + shipping. If you buy stuff here let me know, I have a beach house in Idaho in trying to sell

I’ve been coming here since it opened. I like this place. It has character and a sort of eccentricity that’s nice to see in the days of bland Corporatism. I like some of freaks that wander in too from the Novel café next door. Those people are mostly horrible poets and failed writers, but so what? Who isn’t.
Ditto all the reviews on the selection. The poetry selection is quite good– with the a mix of good trade and scholarly Univ. Press editions of the poets. Plus quite a selection of good criticism (for example: I was stunned by how much good Milton criticism was on the shelves. Same for Auden and Eliot). Philosophy is good and the trade paperback fiction covers all the bases. There’s a very good anthology collection. One could pick up 8 – 12 of those volumes and get a good overview of what’s happened in poetry over the last 1000 years in English. There is some foreign language. Not a lot but, I suppose this can grow. There’s a collection of pulpy stuff as well. And a limited selection of what used to be considered children’s classics.
They opened up a section for records and they’ve got some used hi-​fi equipment upstairs as well.
When the indy bookstore (as well as record store) has been al but routed, it’s hard not to cheer for a place like this.

Angel City is my favorite bookstore on the West side. An adorable little independent shop boasting a vast selection of used, vintage, and rare books and vinyl records in great condition at reasonable prices. The staff I have encountered here have been friendly and the store itself if easy to navigate. I recently found a copy of Italo Calvino’s Difficult Loves as well as a beautiful Modern Library version of E. E Cummings’ The Enormous Room; both for under $ 20. Their vinyl selection is varied, but I was happy to see a decent selection of punk/​indie records as well as a very good jazz collection. Support local bookstores! They’re a rare breed these days… For east side reference, this shop is a lot like Counterpoint Books & Records (which is in the neighborhood I live in) just a bit smaller though.

Sometimes I’ll come across an independent business so charming and wonderful that I feel a pang in my heart as soon as I enter the door, thinking ‘God I really hope this place doesn’t get closed down because everyone goes to Barnes and Noble!’
This tiny little bookstore is so charming that you’ll never want to go to a megastore again, with shelves piled on top of each other, great selection, and a very nice store owner who remembers you when you return.
When I visited I also noticed that they had quite a nice used record collection… very hard to find these days!
So many reasons to come here and browse, and maybe stop by the coffee shop next door to read your new purchase. Visit this place as often as you can and protect it from the big bad big box stores!

Cute used bookstore. Not huge but definitely a good size. Not as easy to find things as some other used bookstores I’ve been to but definitely not difficult by any means. I went to several used bookstores in LA earlier in the day and noticed that they had the same books (I was looking mostly at vintage books, though) and they were a lot more in price than the other stores.

THIS BOOK STORE IS TRULEY MAGICAL. A buried treasure chest.
The owner looks like he popped out of a 16^th century medieval novel who knew how to party in the 70’s. He is awesome and very nice.
The prices are great and very inexpensive.
The selection is endless.
The location is by my favorite café, which there are books from Angel City from floor to ceiling in. It is also by the best indie little health grocery store! Amazing place and it is definitely a must go.

Fantasy bookstore.
It’s a teeny little place where the shelves are almost spilling books.
And despite the plethora of books, they’ve done such a great job of organizing. This is coming from someone who does most of her book shopping online for the ease. I came across some rare finds here (They have vinyl too!). When I got lost, the friendly owners were right there waiting to direct me.
As I made my purchase, I got lost again and purchased more. It was like a labyrinth and I couldn’t leave! All part of the charm.

I love this place. It’s tiny and packed with books I actually want to read, unlike the nearby Novel Café, which is definitely a place to go for coffee and not for literature. I could spend hours in here just making lists of books I want to buy when I have the money. Many of the authors I can typically only find in large bookstores (B&N, Borders) are well-​represented here, and many of the books sell for around half their retail price. True, they’re used, but most of them aren’t abused too badly and I’d rather lose a little cover gloss than seven or eight extra bucks.
Only negatives: there’s no space for reading in the store and nearby parking can be hard to find since Angel City is just off Main.