Fiction Addiction Downtown Books and Art Gallery

Fiction Addiction

1175 Woods Crossing Rd #2, Greenville, SC 29607

Owner: Jill Hendrix

Jill Hendrix founded Fiction Addiction in May 2001 in Greenville, SC. Jill grew up in Greenville, graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in history, and then moved to Brooklyn, NY, where she briefly worked for St. Martin’s Press as an editorial assistant. She then worked for Juno Online Services and a series of internet startups. When the dotcom crash came she decided to move back home and open Fiction Addiction.

Fiction Addiction began as a used bookstore. It carried only fiction for approximately 3 days before Jill listened to her customers’ requests and loosened her strictures. By 2009, the store had converted to an inventory of new books and started the popular Book Your Lunch author event series.

The store has moved 3 times over its 20 years of existence. When the store was closed to the public for 2 weeks during the COVID-19 outbreak in April 2020, they moved three doors down into their current space, which is a cozy 1,000 square feet. They are now offering a Patreon membership, hosting Virtual Events, and offering curbside pickup, but no matter how crazy the world gets, their mission remains to discover and recommend books they feel are worth their customers’ time to read.

Downtown Books and Art Gallery

414 W 6th St., San Pedro, CA 90731

Owner/Manager: Mike Rivero & Ksenia Smirnoff

Downtown Books and Art Gallery, located in the historic Downtown San Pedro Art District CA, is a lovely book store. They also have a custom framing, matting business with a dedicated Art Gallery that has shown great artists like Conrad Buff, Norman Styles Chamberlain, and Clara Tice. Downtown Books and Art Gallery has one of the best collections of antiquarian books in Los Angeles and a great collection of books in Spanish. One of their specialties is great American authors like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Henry Miller, and of course, the legendary LA and San Pedro poet, Charles Bukowski.

Until 1983, this location was home to The Giant Bookstore which held events, book signings, and poetry readings. In fact, Charles Bukowski used to hang out here and he did a poetry reading in this exact location on August 23, 1983.

Downtown Books and Art Gallery is owned and operated by Mike Rivero and Ksenia Smirnoff. Mike Rivero has been at this current location for over twenty years. Mike is a painter who studied under Michael Dancer and Neil Nagy in the early 1990s. His Cuban Band Calle 6 has been performing Cuban Music in the South Bay for many years.

Before going into business with Mike, Ksenia Smirnoff was one of his bookstore customers. Ksenia specializes in children’s literature and Russian literature. She manages the bookstore and she hosts many events such as book signings and poetry readings, as well as their legendary Wednesday Night Film Group, where she shows and discusses many classic films of all genres.