The cheapest way to expand your garage in Southern California involves shelves. No permits, no concrete, no explaining why the washing machine now lives outside. At Autobooks-Aerobooks in Burbank, you can bring home Le Mans, a little hot rodding and an aviation obsession without first negotiating with a mortgage broker.
This is a bookstore for people who hear “light reading” and picture a workshop manual with fewer than six hundred pages. Cars and airplanes share the billing, which seems fair. Both have inspired extraordinary engineering and some fairly creative explanations to spouses.
Autobooks dates to 1951. Its founder, Harry Morrow, was a racer, engineer and Road & Track contributor whose automotive book business grew from a sideline. That pedigree matters. This was an enthusiast’s enterprise before anyone decided that enthusiasm needed a marketing department and a branded water bottle.
The shop’s current offerings range from racing histories to books about hot rodding, individual cars and aviation. Your interests can take a connecting flight without leaving the bookstore. And unlike another project car, a book generally arrives with all its pages, rather than three boxes of unidentified hardware and somebody’s assurance that everything is there.
I’ve done three book signings at Autobooks-Aerobooks with my own books, including one with Parnelli Jones. That puts the place in a rather different category from a website suggesting what other customers bought. There is something special about a shop where the people behind the stories can turn up and sign the pages.
I also met Jay Leno there a couple of times, and he invited me to his garage. Now, that is a bookstore recommendation you don’t get from an algorithm. Usually, the internet just invites you to accept cookies.
Those author autograph sessions are a good reason to keep an eye on the store’s event calendar. Reading about the people who shaped this hobby is rewarding. Having the opportunity to meet an author, ask a question and come away with a signed book adds another dimension. It certainly improves upon arguing with a stranger in the comments section.
Give the aviation side its due, too. The second half of the name deserves more than a polite glance on the way to the racing books. Mechanical curiosity rarely respects departmental boundaries. Anyone fascinated by how a car goes faster can probably tolerate learning how an airplane stays upstairs.
Places like this deserve our business. Go browse something you know, then something you don’t. Buy a book that makes you want to learn more rather than simply argue louder. You might even discover that your next restoration project is the structural integrity of your bookcase.
You’ll find Autobooks-Aerobooks at 2900 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, CA 91505. The shop currently lists hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday. Call (818) 845-0707 and ask for Tina.
And tell her Dean sent ya. I can’t promise a garage invitation, but I can recommend making extra room on the shelf before you go.
