Village Books Owner Laments Dutton’s

Village Books owner Katie O’Laughlin felt as if she had lost a good friend when she heard the news that Doug Dutton will close Dutton’s Brentwood at the end of April. ‘I felt sick to my stomach,’ she told the Palisadian-Post Tuesday afternoon. ‘I am feeling really anxious about the future of independent bookstores reaching a tipping point.’ O’Laughlin, whose bookstore on Swarthmore opened 11 years ago, has focused her business on the community, adjusting her inventory over the years to reflect her customers’ tastes and needs. ‘The inventory has changed over time,’ she said. ‘I have expanded the mystery section and increased the travel section, particularly since the California Map Store on Pico closed. I have the summer reading lists from all the schools in place, which builds up the classics section. And, I keep my ear to the ground with what people in Pacific Palisades are reading.’ O’Laughlin added that she carries few computer books now because the technology is constantly changing. But success in the independent book world comes from pointing out to readers the advantages of a neighborhood bookstore. ‘I look at ways to have something new and different in the bookstore, and try to keep things lively,’ O’Laughlin said. With the success of her ‘road trip’ to Arcadia last fall, where a Chinese cookbook author accompanied guests to a full-course Chinese banquet, O’Laughlin will continue making quarterly field trips. In addition, she has revamped the Village Book Web site (www, making it more interesting and providing an easy and efficient way for customers to buy books online. With the news still fresh about Dutton’s, O’Laughlin was unsure how the loss of the store in Brentwood would affect her business. She suggested that there might be some inventory to buy and store fixtures, but she couldn’t predict if she might gain some of the popular authors who have made regular appearances at Dutton’s over the years. But, in the end, O’Laughlin sees the survival of independent bookstores as more than day-to-day revenue coming in. ‘I am in a unique position of knowing what Doug has been going through,’ she says. ‘It’s about not knowing what’s in the future. It’s a whole different world.’