Name: The Iliad Bookshop
Start: 2022-01-12T11:00:00-08:00
End: 2022-01-12T19:00:00-08:00
Location: ILIAD BOOKSHOP

The Iliad Bookshop

OPEN TUESDAY – SATURDAY -North Hollywood

The ILIAD BOOKSHOP is one of LA’s most popular book stores. Come on in and browse – we have cats (sorry, but all dogs other than service dogs must be carried while in the store), couches, music, water, and 150,000 books. We take cash, check, Visa, MasterCard, Discover. American Express, Apple Pay, debit cards, and Paypal. We’ve been around for over 30 years, we’ve been featured in numerous movies, short films, and television shows, and we are happy to answer any questions you have on buying or selling books.

So, first let’s get one thing straight: We’re not called “ILIAD BOOKSHOP” because we’re a Greek bookshop (the truth is our first location was next to Odyssey Video, and hence a literary joke). And we’re also not a Russian bookshop, contrary to a search result that keeps coming up on Google.

Our brick-and-mortar store is located in North Hollywood, California, we’re one of the largest used bookstores in the Los Angeles area, and we specialize in Literature and the Arts (but carry books on most subjects).

The LA Weekly named us “Best Bookstore Escape” in their 2019 “Best of L.A.” issue, “Best Used Graphic Novels” in 2015, and “Best Bookstore, Valley” in 2012; the L.A. HotList named us Best Bookstore 2018; the L.A. Times “Readers Choice 2011” named us as the favorite bookstore for the Valley/Ventura area; the April 2007 issue of Los Angeles Magazine listed us as one of the best used bookstores in L.A.; the L.A. Times did a feature article on us; we’ve been featured on Storage Wars; and we’ve been home to numerous movie and television shoots. We have over 150,000 books in stock, we offer as safe and healthy a shopping environment as possible, a convenient location with free parking and a bike rack, an experienced staff, air conditioning, and two very sociable cats.

Apollo and Zeus

are brothers who came to us in August 2014 when they were just eight weeks old. Apollo (the blonde one) loves to purr and climb ladders; Zeus (the gray tabby) may jump onto your shoulders unexpectedly. They are very active and playful in the mornings and evenings, but in the afternoons you may find them asleep in their bed on the front counter.

Zeus and Apollo are featured on Chronicle Books’ list of bookstore cats!

Henrietta

was a little stray who started hanging around the bookstore’s parking lot in fall of 2011, when she was just a few weeks old. She was very shy, but eventually found her way into our back room and took up residence there. For months we thought she was a boy, and we named her Henry, after Henry Miller…so you can imagine our surprise when “Henry” went into heat! Unfortunately she never got used to anyone except employee Bob, so in June 2013 she went to live with Bob at home, where she now happily resides.

Zola (aka The One-Eyed Pirate Kitty)

came to us on May 6, 2006, after being rescued by our fabulous writer friend Christa Faust. Zola spent the first two years of her life in a wire-mesh hamster cage, and received no veterinary care; untreated infections caused her to lose one eye and several teeth, and left her with a scar on the remaining eye and a loss of muscle tone. Amazingly enough, she not only survived, but was affectionate and friendly. Unfortunately, Zola passed away on March 26, 2011, due to complications from an uncommon disease called idiopathic chylothorax

Torquemada (or just Torq, for short) and his sister Helga

were born in a vacant lot in Hollywood shortly after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and adopted by Iliad employee Bob Johnson not long after. Since Bob lived within easy walking distance of Iliad’s back door, Torq and Helga accompanied him and soon became the official bookstore cats from 1994 to 2006. Despite being brother and sister, they were very different in both personality and appearance: Torq was short-haired, quick, and slightly bratty, while Helga was long-haired, moved v-e-r-y slowly, and was easy-going in temperament. When we moved to our new location in 2006, Torq and Helga decided they didn’t like the idea of commuting to work, and they retired to live at home with Bob. Torq and Helga achieved some fame during their tenure as Iliad’s resident feline employees, being featured in articles about the store and at Shopcat.com. Helga passed away in 2008, Torq in 2013.

Charlie was a neighborhood stray who basically adopted the store, and moved in during the early days (circa 1988). Charlie was an easygoing, laid back guy who got along great with Jack the Dog (see below), and obviously just liked being around books. Nicknamed “the Silver Bullet” for his gleaming gray coat and occasional streaks around the store, Charlie was also responsible for helping one human employee (Lisa) overcome her lifelong cat allergies. When Dan moved out of the store into his own house circa 1995, Charlie went home with him, and lived there until he died from old age in 2005.

Bugs and Lamont

were two neighborhood strays who were adopted by Dan and his wife Gloria when they lived in part of the store. Lamont was a very handsome and noble Persian blue (or at least a Persian blue lookalike) who occasionally strode through the store imperiously; Bugs was skittish, and we usually only glimpsed her outside. Both went home with Dan and Gloria when they moved circa 1995.