Southern California Booksellers Weather the Storms

The 15-day period of record-breaking rainfall that hit Southern California triggering flooding and mudslides caused some minor damage and mixed sales results for booksellers in the region who responded to Southern California Booksellers Association Executive Director Jennifer Bigelow's request for a status report.

Lise Friedman of Dutton's Brentwood and Beverly Hills said, "We've had a slow couple of weeks sales-wise, especially this past week. Luckily, [we had] only one small leak in [the Beverly Hills location]. A bit worrying as there are two floors above us, but never-the-less water seeped down a light fixture onto cookbooks."

Book'em Mysteries in South Pasadena suffered a 75 percent drop in business as well as "water damage to books, carpet, shelving, and a wall," according to co-owner Mary Riley.

Skylight Books in Los Angeles came through with relatively minor damage. A relieved Kerry Slattery said, "All is well at Skylight Books - but there's been a daily 'leak watch' to see where new leaks are coming -- when one was fixed, others appeared in other parts of the store. Mostly it was minimal -- though we did have about $700 worth of books that were water damaged over the worst part of the rainy period."

Maureen Palacios at Once Upon a Time in Montrose said that, counterintuitively, the store was had done "booming business this last, extremely wet, extremely horrible weekend!" However, Palacios said, "Today, with the sun shining, we have slowed down. Go figure!"

In Redondo Beach, Jimmy Belson of Jimmy B's Audio Books, also enjoyed an increase in business as a result of the unusual weather. He wrote, "While stuck in the 'traffic' of the storms our customers have greatly enjoyed many of the new audiobooks."

Holy Family Bookstore in South Pasadena was also spared. Manager Anne McGann e-mailed, "All is well at the Holy Family Bookstore, except for one small leak -- no damage -- but very slow weekend sales. The rain seems to have chased away the customers. There have been lots of phone calls this morning, so we may have a busy week now that the sun has appeared. Hope everyone else didn't float away."