I LIVED in B Dalton and Waldenbooks as a kid, while my dad was doing millwork in mall openings all over Southern California. The best spot was on the lee side of a greeting card carousel parked up against a wall. I think I read all the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Babysitters Club cramped up on the linoleum.
@fishtaco Huh, never heard that name combination before, only as just plain B. Dalton, both in NYC and So Cal.
@comotellamas Same, after I moved to L.A. in the early '80s. I seem to recall being more partial to B. Dalton, though I think my all-time favorite was the Brentano's in Century City. (Which I just learned was a bankrupt name that Waldenbooks bought and kept because sales "in upscale neighborhoods" were better than under the Walden name.)
Sad to think that those names (plus Crown Books, Borders, Bookstar and too many independents) are long gone, with Barnes & Noble barely clinging on, in greater L.A., at least. Jeez, I remember when the independents like Midnight Special railed against the the coming of Borders and B&N to Santa Monica. Now they're *all* gone :-(
@kafkaesque I used to ride my bike there on Saturday's (we lived in Birdland) with my allowance to buy a book (probably a Xanth book in paperback because I didn't know any better) and then go to KB Toys in Vallco for a GI Joe. I didn't know Crown was independent. They just would sell a 12 year old anything.
@chauffi good times! I bought my share of Blue Adept and other Anthony travesties before I knew any better. We lived off Bollinger, around the corner from the library and City Hall. I don’t know what Birdland is though.
@kafkaesque We lived on the other side of Homestead, from Hewlett Packard (now Apple) in that subdivision. I thought it was called Birdland because all the streets were alphabetical and named after birds, we lived on Redwing.
@comotellamas Same, after I moved to L.A. in the early '80s. I seem to recall being more partial to B. Dalton, though I think my all-time favorite was the Brentano's in Century City. (Which I just learned was a bankrupt name that Waldenbooks bought and kept because sales "in upscale neighborhoods" were better than under the Walden name.)
Sad to think that those names (plus Crown Books, Borders, Bookstar and too many independents) are long gone, with Barnes & Noble barely clinging on, in greater L.A., at least. Jeez, I remember when the independents like Midnight Special railed against the the coming of Borders and B&N to Santa Monica. Now they're *all* gone :-(