Week 4_2/3/16_Another City

I chose the book “Another City,” writing from Los Angeles, edited by David L. Ulin. This novel is made up of stories, chronicles, and poems from young writers about their experience of living in LA. Some of them came to LA while other explained what it was like to grow up there and about its different features. The book is 6 in x 1 in x 8 in (lwh) while standing up. The cover page is a hard cover with thin pages. On each page the margins are about one inch. The book seems rather new and is in great condition. There are no rips in any pages and it is not worn down at all. The publishing company is City Lights publishers.The book is 273 pages long with additional notes on the contributors at the end. Most of the pages are full with words about 12 inch font in Times New Roman. Some of the pages are poems; therefore, they are not all the way full. The lines on those pages are shorter and call for a quicker read. The book is made up of 37 different chapters with each chapter being by a different contributor. Each person tells their thoughts on Los Angeles in their section, so if you only want to read from certain people it will tell you the page number you should go to. There are no drawings of pictures in this book besides a single page. On page 82, there are two doodles representing what that contributor would draw on a man if he were allowed to. The size of the book is normal with the specific height, width, and length that it has. Overall, this book seems like an interesting read and has an appealing cover page with a picture of Los Angeles on it. The call number is PS 572.

In my opinion, the novel is for average readers; it is not too easy but also not too hard. The audience has to have some knowledge of Los Angeles or else they might be lost in reading some of the stories or poems. The chapters are short and not related besides both dealing with LA, so the reader only has to maintain their focus for a short period of time for that specific story. It is easy to tell the audience is not for very advanced readers because there are several poems and the font size is normal. On some advanced novels, the writing is very small with many pages. There is no specific age that the audience is but it is most likely teenagers and up. Any one who is interested in learning more about Los Angeles is most likely to read this, but they could range from a high schooler to a senior citizen. The contributors come from all different backgrounds, indicating that a variety of people would find joy in reading the different stories and poems. This book does not have one author, it has 37 different contributors and one editor which does not necessarily help to figure out the main audience. The book was published by the City Lights which is in San Francisco. With that being said, the publishers are most likely familiar with California living as well. The two places are about six hours away driving, so there are differences, but they are both along the Pacific coastline. To conclude, the audience would be someone who has the average ability to read and shows interest in Los Angeles.

Ulin, David L. Another City: Writing from Los Angeles. San Francisco: City Lights, 2001. Print.