Independent bookstores in Los Angeles have suffered plenty of losses over the past few years, Midnight Special Bookstore in 2004, Dutton's Brentwood Books at the start of 2008, and several others in between.
Nonetheless, there are two big names at two local bookstores this week, not to mention the encouraging news that readers have bought up Amazon.com's supply of Kindle wireless reading devices, at a cost of $359 each!
As for those bookstore appearances, actress/writer Carrie Fisher is scheduled to sign her memoir Wishful Drinking at Book Soup in Hollywood (8818 Sunset Blvd.) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The bookstore's pitch says Fisher reveals in the book "what it was really like to grow up a product of 'Hollywood in-breeding,' come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen."
Then on Wednesday at Village Books in Pacific Palisades (1049 Swarthmore Ave.), actor Tom Hanks is expected to sign pretty much everything he's ever touched including DVD copies of Catch Me If You Can, Charlie Wilson's War, and The Green Mile. The appearance is slated for 7 p.m.
