Los Angeles Times Book Fair

Los Angeles Times Book Fair through the Ages

The Bodhi Tree Bookstore was a founding and participating member of the Los Angeles Times Book Fair from 1996 through 2008. Inaugurated in 1996, the LA Times Book Fair has become one of the premium book fairs for the United States drawing large crowds. It features many well attended author presentations, hundreds of bookstore booths showing their wares, and several outdoor stages, with author readings and musical events. All the events are free (there is a charge for vehicle parking). Most author events require tickets (distributed free). A children’s book area is very popular with children and their families. The book fair is a two day event on Saturday and Sunday in the latter part of April.

For the first one in 1996, the Bodhi Tree Bookstore had a small ten foot square booth just outside Royce Hall. The booth was so tightly packed with customers we realized immediately that we needed a larger size. The next year we had a ten by thirty foot booth that we shared with Timeless Books, a publisher. Eventually we had a twenty foot by twenty foot square booth. The Bodhi Tree Bookstore stopped exhibiting at the Los Angeles Times Book Fair after the 2008 show.

For the first several shows, we invited authors to come to our booth for book signing events, such as Larry Payne, Georg Feuerstein, John Morton and John-Roger. One year, Huston Smith was making a presentation in one of the big halls and after his event he came by to say hello and ended up staying with us for a long visit. In subsequent years, we used the booth space to show the diverse people who come to this show a sampling of our books, audio, statuary, prayer flags, bells and hangings as well as our bookstore hospitality. Some years, Lisa would do chair massage during the show. Sometimes we would bring the big quartz bells and Mario would play them and demonstrate their usage. The sound of the bell could be heard hundreds of feet away. Anyone who wanted could take up the striker and play them. Young children especially were fascinated by the bells.

When we were publishing the Bodhi Tree Book Review, from 1992 through 2002, we always had a stack of issues to give out. For the last few years, we gave away Evolve Magazine.

In 2007, a large Italian Espresso making machine occupied a corner of our booth. We gave away a variety of free coffee drinks to an appreciative crowd.

For the last several years we had one or two tables loaded with discontinued books at very low prices such as one to three dollars each. This proved to be very popular and some customers would buy them up by the box load.

The Los Angeles Times Book Fair is a two-day event. At the end, after packing up and going home, we were tired but always elated. It was wonderful being immersed in a large group of book-loving people.

What follows is a photo history of the Bodhi Tree Bookstore at the Los Angeles Times Book Fair from 1996 through 2008.

labf 1996 First one, a 10ft square booth-customers	labf 1996 First one-phil & customer
labf 1996 First one-Phil resting	labf 1996 First one-Shawn & Kimberly
labf 1998 Mario and customers	labf 1998 Camilla working at the booth
labf 1998 Customers in the booth. Young girl with hat	labf 1998 Patrick at the sales desk
labf 1998 View of the outside of the booth	labf 1998 Timeless Books next to the Bodhi Tree booth
labf 1998 Manish of SRF next to the Bodhi Tree booth	labf 1999 Booth visitors
labf 1999 Georg Feuerstein and Larry Payne meeting people and signing copies of their book, Yoga for Dummies, at the Bodhi Tree booth	labf 1999 John Morton and John-Roger signing their books at the Bodhi Tree booth
labf 1999 Phil & Christopher working in the booth	labf 2000 View inside the booth
labf 2000 Art Kunkin inside booth	labf 2000 Art Kunkin looking for an interesting book
labf 2000 Stella Resnick visiting the Bodhi Tree booth	labf 2000 Lisa doing chair massage
labf 2000 Jennika and Phil working the booth	labf 2000 In the booth with Jenika & customers
labf 2000 Christopher at the sales table	labf 2000 Customers visiting the Bodhi Tree booth
labf 2002 Sales desk and customers inside the booth	labf 2002 View inside the booth
labf 2002 Danny working in the booth at the sales table	labf 2002 View inside the booth
labf 2002 Jo and Mike working the booth at the sales desk	labf 2002 Stan and Gypsy Boots outside the Bodhi tree booth
labf 2003 A view of customers visiting the Bodhi Tree booth	labf 2003 Lisa doing chair massage to a blissful customer
labf 2003 Neisha working in the booth	labf 2003 A view of the the crowd passing by the Bodhi tree booth
labf 2003 A view of the outside of the Bodhi Tree booth	labf 2003 A view looking over the crowd towards Royce Hall
labf 2003 SRF booth next to the Bodhi Tree booth	labf 2003 View of the crowd passing by the Bodhi Tree booth
labf 2005 View inside the booth	labf 2005 Mario playing the quartz singing bowl
labf 2005 Mario with a customer while playing the quartz singing bowl	labf 2005 View of the outside of the Bodhi Tree booth
labf 2006 View inside the Bodhi Tree booth	labf 2006 Jasper and Rebecca at the sales table
labf 2006 Mario with singing metal bowl	labf 2006 View of the front of the Bodhi Tree booth
labf 2006 View of the people outside the Bodhi Tree booth flowing along	labf 2007 View inside the Bodhi Tree booth
labf 2007 View of customers and the Bodhi Tree sales team	labf 2007 A Bodhi Tree booth visitor with charming hat
labf 2008 A view showing Phil setting up the booth	labf 2008 Customers browsing in the Bodhi tree booth
labf 2008 Christopher & Nina at the sales register with customers	labf 2008 A special display of DeVorss books on a side bookcase
labf 2008 SRF booth next door to the Bodhi Tree booth	labf 2008 A view of a table display and Nina at the sales register
labf 2008 Outside the Bodhi Tree booth, the crowd flows by	labf 2008 A view showing Mario and young girl with the singing bowls
labf 2008 A young girl and the singing bowls	labf 2008 A young reader sitting in a corner