Shopping in Ventura

Ever since his parents opened a bookstore in 1954, Clarey Rudd's life has revolved around the written word. Clarey owned and managed 24 bookstores between 1974 and 1996 before depositing a life’s worth of knowledge into Bank of Books, where the next generation of Rudds joins in the family business by sorting and shipping more than 200,000 new and used titles. A veritable potpourri of genres greets visitors at the two-level store, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The Rudd clan restocks the shelves daily, sending excess titles to a warehouse where more than two million additional books reside.

With both book-filled facilities to draw from, the Rudds have no problem helping interested parties hunt down everything from new releases to ancient manuals. They keep Bank of Books filled with works from local authors and national bestsellers, even saving some space for local artists to exhibit and sell their work.

For more than 20 years, Perfect Party has furnished all the festive supplies required to decorate birthdays, showers, graduation parties, and other gatherings. It outfits both dance floors and partygoers with seasonal frills and creative costumes during holiday get-togethers, and proffers helium-filled mylar and latex balloons to prep voices for Chipmunks karaoke. Disposable plates, cups, and utensils help hosts clean up the remnants of treats created with Perfect Party's candy-making supplies and dissuade guests from diving into the cake face-first.

Bead Your Addiction carries everything you need to create your own beaded jewelry, from semiprecious gemstones and freshwater pearls to a large assortment of charms and other supplies. Inside the shop, visitors can fine-tune their skills in more than a dozen classes, including basic bead stringing, basic wire wrapping, and traditional pearl knotting. Do-it-yourselfers can use those workspaces to piece together projects on their own. Day-to-day operations aside, Bead Your Addiction hosts parties as well as a children's creativity program.

The knitting instructors and enthusiasts at Anacapa Fine Yarns foster a welcoming, serene environment in which beginners and experts alike can further their skills and pick up supplies for their next project. A diverse offering of classes ranges from beginning knitting to more advanced classes such as Extreme Double Knitting, in which students craft a warm beanie, and Continental Converts, which teaches a quicker method for churning out scarves to stave off threats of snowman rebellion. Instruction takes place in a 1,900-square-foot classroom separate from the shop area, transforming on Thursday nights into an open workshop for anyone who'd like to work on a personal project alongside friends.