A beach house residency, literary happenings and the bookmobiles and book clubs of yore

The writers residency of your Southern California dreams. Unsung bookish heroes of the Great Depression. And a historical excuse to get tipsy at book club. Here’s what’s happening in literary links this week.

Finish your book at the Annenberg Community Beach House

Ah, summer in Los Angeles. The season for dining al fresco, concerts at the Greek, movies at Hollywood Forever and hunting with a wild-eyed desperation for any pool in which you might find a moment of cooled-down peace.

Mere mortals can always trod to the ocean, but for those plebeians among us who like to dabble in more refined tastes, there’s the pool at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica. (The audacity of building a pool steps from the shoreline. Who can resist?) It’s reason enough to apply for a writers residency at the Annenberg Community Beach House, a nine-week stint in a private office that’s open to fiction writers, screenwriters, playwrights and poets based in L.A. County. Just imagine: the writing coming sweet and easy, pages ruffled by a salty breeze, plunging into a cold pool (or a crisp wave) whenever you’re in need of a little extra inspiration. Start casting around now for recommendations: proposals are due July 18.

Librarians on horseback

It’s officially my new favorite (old) thing: a little known program implemented by the New Deal called the Pack Horse Library, which sent librarians to distribute books in remote Appalachia. Librarians on horseback were the bookmobiles of their time: in 1936, the initiative served 50,000 families.

“ ‘Libraries’ were housed any in facility that would step up, from churches to post offices,” writes Eliza McGraw at the Smithsonian. “Librarians manned these outposts, giving books to carriers, who then climbed aboard their mules or horses, panniers loaded with books, and headed into the hills. They took their job as seriously as mail carriers and crossed streams in wintry conditions, feet frozen in the stirrups.”

Don’t miss the incredible photo gallery of packhorse librarians at the start of the piece. Wonder women, all.

Book clubs have always been about booze

If you needed a little liquid courage to confess to your book club that you quit on “Purity” after Page 333, it turns out you’re part of a fine — and long-standing — tradition. Take this tidbit to your next meeting (along with a bottle of rosé): book clubs, which originated in 18th century England, have always been social spaces, and as such, have always included drinking.

This Atlas Obscura article by Sarah Laskow covers a fair amount of historical, boozy book club ground, but the highlight is an excerpt from a 1788 poem called “The Country-Book Club” by Charles Shillito (“Shillito took a dim view of the country doctor, squire, and vicar who gathered to drink and gossip at a meeting ‘that leaves no vacant time to think, or read’ ”) and the rules laid out by an early book club, which encouraged “a broad hint of conviviality” but imposed fines for “being drunk ‘so that a member be offensive to the company’” or for skipping a month.

Thursday night readings

There are two great picks for Thursday night literary events this week. Going head to head: The Last Bookstore with Rosecrans Baldwin, Amelia Gray and Catherine Lacey versus PEN Center USA’s presentation, with the Paris Review, of Sarah Manguso, Ottessa Moshfegh, John Jeremiah Sullivan and Lorin Stein. The first event is free; tickets for the second reading, which is held at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, start at $25.

agatha.french@latimes.com

@agathafrenchy