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I doubt I’m the first to see this, but I certainly won’t be the last - a spammer just started following me on the popular micro-blogging service, Twitter.  With a name of diecastmodelcar, I immediately thought this was the case,  and clicking on the account’s link confirmed my suspicion:

A Twitter spammer.  The language used certainly conforms to the unwritten guidelines that all email spammers tend to adhere to:  Very poor grammar, repetition, excessive nonsense, and lots of links to buy stuff.

My remedy is to block this cat, but I hope this doesn’t become a common occurrence.  To my friends working at Twitter, you better get ahead of this issue before it blows up and destroys your service.

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This weekend at UCLA is the annual LA Times Festival of Books.  I’ll be heading to the presentation of the LAT Book Prizes the evening before, and then at the festival all day, both days.  If you’ve never gone before, you should try to head up to UCLA for a little - the Festival is one of the best things about LA.

Here’s my itinerary … drop me a line if you’ll be at any of these panels:

Saturday

10:00 AM
Nonfiction From the Streets (Panel 1101)
Moderator Ms. Jill Leovy
Mr. Miles Corwin
Ms. Celeste Fremon
Mr. Dashaun Morris

11:30 AM
Gay Talese In Conversation with Tim Rutten (Panel 1032)
Interviewer Mr. Tim Rutten
Mr. Gay Talese

2:30 PM
Current Interest: Right & Left ( Panel 1053)
Moderator Mr. Jim Newton
Mr. Eric Alterman
Mr. David Frum
Ms. Arianna Huffington
Mr. Dan Schnur

4:30 PM
Ray Bradbury with an Introduction from Sid Stebel (Panel 1054)
Introducer Mr. Sid Stebel
Mr. Ray Bradbury

Sunday

10:00 AM (Panel 2101)
The Future of News
Moderator Mr. Michael Parks
Ms. Cinny Kennard
Mr. Russ Stanton
Mr. David Talbot

12:30 PM (Panel 2122)
Contentious Ground: The Middle East
Moderator Mr. Zachary Karabell
Mr. Reza Aslan
Mr. Chris Hedges
Mr. Elias Khoury
Ms. Amy Wilentz

1:30 PM
Current Interest: Latin American Identities (Panel 2043)
Moderator Ms. Marjorie Miller
Mr. Jorge Castañeda
Ms. Ann Louise Bardach
Dr. Pamela Starr

2:30 PM
Walter Mosley in Conversation with Michael Silverblatt (Panel 2123)
Interviewer Mr. Michael Silverblatt
Mr. Walter Mosley

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While in Dutton’s today, I thought about an accelerating trend marking my past 3 years in LA - the shuttering of local bookstores (a trend that doubtless is occurring across the country - Coliseum Books comes to mind).

It’s weird that I’ve come to witness the tail end of some really beloved institutions like Dutton’s.  Here are a few LA bookstores that I’ve had the chance to explore… and have since disappeared from the face of the earth:

• Johnny’s Used Books (in Westwood)
• Other Times Books (on Pico Blvd, owned by Andrew Dowdy)
• Dutton’s Beverly Hills
• Dutton’s Brentwood (in a week)

And the thing is - these are all just in West LA … all less than 5 miles from each other.  What an inordinate amount of closings in such a small area.  I’ve yet to make it down to Acres of Books in Long Beach… but they’re apparently next on the chopping block.

I don’t know what to make of it, but It’s always sad to see a good store (bookseller or otherwise) close its doors.

I try not to be too nostalgic about the passing of an age.  I could just as easily have wrote about how it’s gotten a lot cheaper to build a library of used books thanks to online shopping and the new generation of blogs, meetups, and forums that are supplanting the independent bookstore as social institution.

I can’t begrudge the literary consumer for wanting to buy books more conveniently and for less money.  But no matter what, the old man in me does still mourn the declining pastime of reading books for leisure.

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