Lisa Morton, Bookseller
Iliad Bookshop, 5400 Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601
@iliadbookshop
What kind of reader were you as a child? What was the first book that made a strong impression on you?
I started reading from the age of 3. By the time I was 5, my mom was taking me to the library every day to check out the maximum number of books (6!). My first truly adult novel was Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, a book I recently re-read and still loved (in fact, I wrote my own sequel story to it, which will appear in the upcoming HarperCollins anthology Scaring and Daring).
What do you love about being able to work around books every day?The people, first and foremost; readers are a diverse, smart, funny, curious group. As a writer, I love working in a used bookstore because of the constant flow of research materials coming through, many of which are scarce and hard to find. And since the Iliad has two shop cats (Zeus and Apollo), I get to be around delightful non-humans as well!
ILIAD BOOKSHOP’S MURAL
A great thing about living in Los Angeles…
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I still think it's the greatest city in the world. We have a far richer literary history than many people realize, and our writing communities here are vibrant and incredibly gifted. We have everything here within a short drive, whether you want mountains or ocean, Oaxacan food or Indian spices, vintage vinyl or the best contemporary art...all right here!
What makes you happy? What are you grateful for?
I'm grateful to live in this magical city, to have two dual careers I love (bookselling and writing), and to be happy and healthy.
Tell us about some of your favorite books and writers of all time.
I write mainly within the horror genre, so I love speculative fiction writers. My favorite horror author was L.A. native Dennis Etchison, whose 1982 collection The Dark Country changed the course of my writing (I was privileged to know Dennis, who was instrumental in helping me early on).
As you reflect on your year of reading, what books have you recently enjoyed? And what books are you looking forward to in 2025?
The only downside to my writing career is that I write a lot of non-fiction, so most of my reading goes to research. I'm hoping to assemble (with my frequent editing partner Leslie S. Klinger) another volume of classic ghost stories, so I've been doing deep-dive reading lately in 19th-century authors, looking to unearth those hidden gems.
Interviewed by Mia Funk