Skylight Books

A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. --Kafka

Welcome to Skylight Books. We are a general bookstore serving such historic Los Angeles neighborhoods as Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and Echo Park; located in the shadow of Griffith Park and its iconic Observatory, and surrounded by the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, R.M. Schindler, and Richard Neutra. Our eclectic clientele, including many local artists, musicians, writers, and scholars, challenges us to provide the cutting edge of culture including the best in literary fiction, books on music, art, film and theatre, Los Angeles regional culture and history, graphic literature, children’s books, political theory and more.

Located 3 1/2 blocks north of the Sunset/Vermont Metro station, just next to the Los Feliz 3 cinema.

You can order books from us 24/7 through this website (the database will show whether it is currently 'on our shelves.' If not in stock, we can usually get books within a week or so. Be sure to read our "Frequently Asked Questions" section on the left sidebar before ordering).

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Skylight books is proud to announce that one of our bestselling items of all time, the remarkable minicomic Sad Animals is now available right here on the website!

Store Events

Take a look at the books our staff loves.

Powers: The Definitive Hardcover Collection
by Bendis, Brian Michael, Oeming, Michael Avon
For the couple years I’ve been reading everything by Bendis that I can get my hands on. His character and dialogue driven stories have changed the face of action oriented mainstream comics. Two of Marvel Comics lead titles (‘Ultimate Spiderman’ and ‘New Avengers’) are his babies, and the traditional ratio of action to exposition is entirely reversed in these stories; the best and most dramatic scenes being, for instance, six pages of dialogue between two characters sitting on a bed. Bendis’ ability to create a sense of comic timing in a still panel is astounding and obviously influenced by the work of Joss Whedon.

My favorite title by Bendis, however, is ‘Powers’. A ten volume (so far) independent series that is essentially ‘NYPD Blue’ crossed with the world of superheroes, ‘Powers’ follows a couple of sharp-witted homicide detectives in their never ending investigations of the deaths of the hapless heroes who are murdered in spectacular ways. The plotting in these is not always successful, but it’s a small price to pay for the excellent character studies and hilarious dialogue. ‘Powers’ is highly recommended for anyone who likes their superheroes to be well deconstructed.

Indie Next List

Unique and provocative selections from a great diversity of voices...all personally recommended by the independent booksellers of America.

2666
by Bolano, Roberto, Wimmer, Natasha
2666 is the culmination of Roberto Bolano's expansive brilliance, as traces of such previous works as The Savage Detectives have been perfected and fused together seemlessly as part of a larger whole. This is a daring book that takes major risks throughout, and its overall impact is impossible to ignore or ever forget.--Nathan Halter, The Doylestown Bookshop (Doylestown, PA)

Quote of the Day

"The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty."

- John Steinbeck
Writers at Work--Fourth Series
From The Quotable Book Lover (Lyons Press)

Author Birthday

Born on this date in 1877: Hermann Hesse.