Spending My Time, If Not My Money, at Rare Books LA

By John King Tarpinian: Mentally, I spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on Saturday. Rare Books LA is a roving book show with a mix of $10 pulps to first editions priced at thousands of dollars. This show was held in Pasadena the week before the Antiquarian Book Show in San Francisco. That meant many of the higher end dealers could come here then move north for the other show.  Dealers from Germany, England, Ireland, and Australia were in attendance, along with local vendors.  Dealers specializing in everything from vintage cookbooks to our beloved genre books.

Their next show will be going back to L.A.’s beautiful Union Station. This is great because you can take the Metro there and then afterwards walk across the street to Philippe’s, credited for inventing the beef dip sandwich.

As the pictures here show, there were hundreds of genre books to spend next month’s mortgage on.

Some of these same vendors will be at March’s Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show.  Shameless plug since I am the Show Organizer.