Profile by Anna Kappa: Simon Taylor, Left Coast Books, 5877 Hollister Ave., Goleta; www.leftcoastbooks.us
Rising triumphantly in the space where a fire drove Yoli’s Mexican Restaurant out of business, Left Coast Books promises to be something special in the community of independent booksellers. And owner Simon Taylor has a lot to say about books, community and independence—not necessarily in that order.
The one-time museum curator (pictured left) with a passion for books found himself out of options when his severance ran out, and he happened upon his new career. “All I had was my collection of 7,000 books,” he noted, “and while I can be sentimental about books, I realized what goes around comes around.” Taylor began selling his personal collection on the Internet—and made a fairly good living at it. “I like being independent, especially not having to work for some asshole who doesn’t know what’s going on.”
For the past seven years, Taylor has run his online service out of a series of local offices, but missed connecting with other bibliophiles, person to person. “I was sick of sitting alone behind a computer,” he observed. Bucking the trend of the day—moving from a shop to the internet—Taylor’s moving in the other direction.
He intends to make his first venture into brick-and-mortar bookselling an exercise in community development in a place that can use some. “I want to do poetry readings, film screenings, music, book signings, and whatever else works. I want bodies in the shop, and all are welcome, including marginal groups.”
With a huge selection and an enormous, funky open space behind the shop filled with potential for creative literary, musical and other community activities to take place, Taylor’s vision is about to open up. He’s planned a grand opening celebration complete with refreshments, live music and a reception for the inaugural art exhibition, “The Grand Hotel Abyss: Art in California During the Great Recession” by Shirley Tse, recipient of a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship. The event will take place on Saturday, August 28th from 4-7 p.m.
“I’m not threatened by Kindle or e-books,” stated Taylor, “they’re great for travel books or romance novels. But there will always be a market for finely bound books; they’re nice objects. And I think Gutenberg will get the last laugh.”
What in heck is a “marginal group?”
In SB, the marginal groups are both in the majority and in control but they maintain their “favored victim” status to allow them to keep bleeding the system dry.
I guess that means Wendy McCaw is welcome at the bookstore.
Hint: They don’t go to rallies held by (racist, white) TEA-PARTIERS. And, yes, Wendy McCaw is welcome at LEFT COAST BOOKS (as is everyone, for that matter). Have a nice day.
I think I’ll stick to Paperback Alley…sounds like a much more “tolerant” environment.
The entire community was invited to the opening of Left Coast Books and its doors are open to people of all political and ideological persuasions. Everyone is welcome, so any accusations of intolerance are unwarranted and, well…mean-spirited.
As for el_smurfo’s attempt to drive a wedge between me and Ruta at Paperback Alley, let me say for the record that I did not go into business to compete wiith her business. Although there is some overlap, we have different inventories and different business models. Customers looking for romance, sci-fi, westerns, crime fiction and many other genres will continue to patronise PA because I have a more limited focus, with lots of academic books and a specialization in art books. Ruta has an established trade-in policy, while I have no plans to adopt this practice. We are on friendly terms, and both of us hope to benefit from our proximity to each other.
Thanks for all the negativity, guys!
Yeah, it’s not “mean spirited” to brand an entire political movement racist when race isn’t mentioned anywhere in my comment…disingenuous maybe, but not mean. Internet sniping aside, I checked out your store last week…definitely adds something new to tired old downtown Goleta and is an interesting complement to the Mercury Lounge. I apologize for using your store’s article to make a political point, but if you are going to advertise your store in loaded terms such as “marginal group”, you’re going to need to be a little thicker skinned when people start to debate what exactly that is supposed to mean.
Fair enough, el_smurfo. I accept your comment and I’m glad you came into the store. However, the following attitude you express is highly problematic: “In SB, the marginal groups are both in the majority and in control but they maintain their ‘favored victim’ status to allow them to keep bleeding the system dry.”
I’m not going to get into an attenuated discussion with you in the context of this thread, but I want to clarify my original, rather offhand, remark about being accessible to “marginal” groups. Although this was interpreted as party-line political correctness (liberal friendliness to women, people of color, LGBTs), in fact what I was thinking about at the time were: artists, writers, poets, loners, introverted people, extroverted people, creative types, people who are pissed off with the system, drifters, surfers, anarchists, punks, hippies, people on the fringes of society. Left Coast Books is a place where such individuals are made to feel welcome. And anyone who can tolerate such people is welcome, too.
I’m glad you came into the store, el_smurfo. You’re welcome back. Introduce yourself, if you wish, or stay incognito. Best, Simon
PAX
Cool!…based on 6/14 of your points, I’m a marginal group all to myself!