Summer is well underway and it’s time for beach reading that more merits page-turning than any ‘ole grocery store romance. Plus, what better place to spend a Sunday evening or the muggy, but overcast weekday afternoon than the very best of LA’s off-the-beaten path bookstores?

What I’m looking for in a bookshop? Comfort: the physical aesthetics of the place (reading nooks equal a major plus), the staff and atmosphere (no haggling, please), and the collection (books we know and want to read and more).

So here are the top five perfect settings for those rare afternoons of reading respite. And [note to us] maybe we should make them more common?

NUMBER ONE: BRAND BOOKSTORE

Named after its token avenue, Brand Bookshop in Glendale is an old-fashioned find with contemporary charm. Number one in this quest of LA’s shelves in 2008, Brand has been around for over 21 years “22 the 1^st of September,” Jerome Joseph, the store’s owner and founder, kindly reminds me. Starting at the tree-lined exterior, complete with a picturesquely plain “Books” sign, Brand is the simple, yet rare, fusion of atmosphere and content. The slow-paced but artsy neighborhood, the glass front windows and friendly display are promising from the start. The books inside do not disappoint.

This afternoon, I enter the shop in the midst of some friendly cash register banter and go relatively unnoticed and I love it. What more could a perusing bookie ask? I have all the means for a perfect afternoon and no rush to boot.

I am immediately taken with the shop’s high shelves and sunny light and, in the true spirit of independent bookstores, an air of classy alternativeness. The shop is brimming with great used reads and good prices and there’s far more range than I ever expected ah, “libraries purchased,” that explains it.

First to catch my eye is an extensive collection of children’s classic Golden Spine storybooks oh the nostalgia of bedtime stories. I already feel right at home.

Turning to the shop’s left wing, I slip into the oblong maze of floor-to-ceiling shelves, sunlight shifting in through a skylight and the front windows. There’s a semi-celestial spirit to the place maybe it’s the classical music or high caliber of literature, or maybe just my inner plea to plop down and read the afternoon away but there’s something about this shop that reminds me of the option of a book in the midst of metropolitan madness: to take the time to escape the afternoon in places like this. Care to miss traffic?

Laminated yellow tags that stick off the shelve, rather than on it, and can be seen from the end of the aisle, assist in an easy navigation of the shop’s collection of thousands as does the shop’s staff who seem just plain happy to be there. [Witnessed: employee standing with book open, reading and smiling.]

“Do you have books about ” a customer asks.

“Yes, of course,” the charming 80-something year old shop owner preemptively chimes, and he and the customer laugh together. The truth is, Brand probably does.

The left gallery of the shop, which consists of a series of adjoining rooms, is mainly devoted to non-fiction, ranging from cinema to poetry to international travel; the center to cooking and children’s and well, just plain random where else could you find bullfighting and rodeo, poker and “human oddities” side-by-side? The right nook proffers a veritable lifetime supply of mystery and the back room creative fiction and alternative healing: Shamanism to Self-Help.

Brand exudes a meticulous mayhem, a sort of classy alternativeness. The shop has good reads of all shapes and kinds, but it’s not intimidating; rather, the comfortable aesthetics encourage undaunted curiosity. I just couldn’t help pulling those works out to see what the spines hinted at. I mean, I had to pass Erotica on the way to the bathroom anyway. (Kidding.)

In seriousness, Brand offers a simultaneous effortlessness and organization. It is maze-like yet easy to navigate. Even more, it has the undeniable id of secondhand bookstores: good reads, good prices, good people sharing the love.

Basically, it’s a sunny nook where the promise of bookie nirvana is fully realized.

Here, you can travel to Zimbabwe, mime the first and second seasons of Seinfeld scripts, delve into a specialty book on Eudora Welty you name it: “We’ve basically got everything,” a young employee summed it up.

The scattered ladders and cozy corners make the perfect reading spots, and the diverse and dynamic collection makes you wonder why you’d ever visit a charmless chain vendor.

What I walked away with: a mylar-bound copy of Wole Soyinka’s personal narrative, a luxurious(ly cheap) collection of colorful Georgia O’Keefe prints, and a well-spent couple of hours. And, compliments of the friendly owner, Mr. Joseph, a free bookmark made of Mongolian stamps with sketches of wild animals.

If there is one thing this Brand is not, it’s pretentious. If there is one thing it is, it’s stellar.

Brand Bookshop is open Monday through Thursday from 10 AM to 9 PM, Friday and Saturday from 10 AM to 10 PM, and Sunday from 11 AM to 8 PM.

Brand Bookshop: 231 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale 91203, 818-507-5943 www.abebooks.com/home/brandbooks

Check in next Monday at 1pm for the next 2 best places in LA to read.

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