150,000 books, two cats and a family legacy: Inside North Hollywood’s Iliad Bookshop

By Jenna Jarrah

One might have seen the Iliad Bookshop in shows like American Horror Story: Red Tide, Jane the Virgin, and For All Mankind. The store, ornate with lively murals that extend down two sides of the shop, sits at the corner of Chandler and Cahuenga Boulevards in North Hollywood and is one of Southern California’s largest and oldest bookstores.

Owner Dan Weinstein opened the shop in September 1987. What started as a personal collection of 10,000 books has grown to 150,000 books. He credits his shop’s success to being “a good bookstore” with a selection of books from novels to histories to cinema books, and low prices. Another “key” he said, is knowing how to identify rare books.

First editions from authors like Edward Abbey and Charles Bukowski are normally worth thousands of dollars, but at Iliad most books sell for between $3 and $15.

Currently, the bookstore is expanding its physical space, and is opening up 1,200 square feet just for rare books. Perhaps another contributing factor to his success is the family of book sellers that Weinstein comes from. His family’s book business started when Weinstein’s uncles turned his grandfather’s thrift shop in India into a bookstore.

“My uncles realized they could buy books all day long for a nickel, and sell them for 50 cents,” Weinstein said.

They all opened bookstores when they moved to California. At one point, his family had at least a dozen bookstores in Southern California. His uncle’s shop, Heritage Bookshop in Beverly Hills, is one of the premier bookstores in the world, according to Weinstein. Book City, in the Valley and in Hollywood, also belongs to his family. And Weinstein Fine Books in Glendale belonged to his late father.

Among all the things that make Iliad Bookshop unique is the mural outside, depicting literary scenes and portraits of more than fifty authors and musicians like Charles Dickens, Sylvia Plath, Harper Lee, Pink Floyd and Tom Petty.

“It’s a combination of some literary people, some historical people, and just general fun,” said Weinstein. Mural artist Paul Dilworth travels from England to work on it.

And obviously, it wouldn’t be a bookstore without cats. The shop’s two cats, Zeus and Apollo, are “very cute and friendly,” says Weinstein. “Sometimes people just come in for cat time.”

Iliad Bookshop has a sitting room for reading and browsing, and is open from 11am to 7pm Tuesday through Saturday.