Why you should experience Zibby's Bookshop in Santa Monica, California.
Zibby's Bookshop is a literary salon disguised as a neighborhood bookstore, a place where stories arrive alive and leave carrying you with them.
Located at 1113 Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, California near the intersection with 12th Street along the city's refined Montana Avenue shopping corridor, this independent bookstore operates as a curated literary hub built around author events, thoughtful staff recommendations, and shelves organized to spark emotional curiosity. Opened in 2023 by author and media host Zibby Owens, the shop quickly became a gathering place for readers, writers, and book lovers seeking more than retail.
What you didn't know about Zibby's Bookshop.
Zibby's Bookshop was built on the idea that a bookstore should function like a community conversation, not a quiet warehouse of paper.
Inside, the shelves follow a unique curation system that groups books by emotional themes and reader experiences rather than traditional categories, encouraging discovery through feeling and perspective. The store hosts frequent author talks, book launches, and literary gatherings that bring writers and readers into the same intimate room, transforming a normal evening into a shared cultural moment. Books featured on Zibby Owens' publishing ventures, podcast, and book club appear alongside new releases and carefully selected favorites, reinforcing the shop's identity as a living literary ecosystem.
How to fold Zibby's Bookshop into your trip.
Zibby's Bookshop belongs in the quiet pocket of your day when curiosity replaces urgency.
Stop by while strolling Montana Avenue's cafés and boutiques, step inside long enough to wander the themed shelves, and let a bookseller guide you toward something unexpected. If an author event is scheduled, stay, the small room fills quickly with readers who understand the rare pleasure of hearing a story explained by the person who wrote it. Walk back onto Montana Avenue with a new book in hand, the Pacific breeze drifting in from a few blocks west. Some travel memories are loud. The best ones begin with turning a page.
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