Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
When you're in the Ferry Building, stop at
Book Passage
5
(1 Ferry Building,
Embarcadero at Market;
%
415/835-1020; www.bookpassage.com),
a deeply
admired and fiercely independent bookstore that has a second, larger location in
Marin County's Corte Madera, too far away for a casual visit. The selection here
is big on travel of all types, Bay Area concerns, and food and wine. For me, the
real appeal are its excellent author events; this store is more likely than any other
around to host a big-name author or even a literate comedian, and its selection of
signed first editions is unparalleled. The store will send you updates about what's
scheduled if you sign up at its website, which is so loaded with events and upcom-
ing conferences that it reads more like a site for a community center. In August,
the stores host a well-attended travel writer's conference.
William Stout Architectural Books
(804 Montgomery St., at Jackson;
%
415/
391-6757; www.stoutbooks.com)
is remarkably well stocked: 20,000 volumes on two
floors. Some of the topics are so unusual that they cost a pretty penny, but most of the
others are simply pretty. This is the best place in town to go for coffee-table books,
artists' monographs, and those eye-popping German books full of arty photos.
Despite the sound of the name,
Stacey's Books
(581 Market St.;
%
800/
926-6511 or 415/421-4687; www.staceys.com; closed Sun)
isn't run by some mid-
dle-school girl who dots her I's with hearts; it was started by Mr. Stacey in 1923.
Its beginnings were as a medical-book supplier but, over time, it grew to become
the respected megastore it is today, with 150,000 titles of every subject—profes-
sional medical tomes, though, are still a specialty. It hosts (and promotes) regular
events with authors, so check the schedule online.
One of the last gay-themed bookstores in a major American city to remain in
business (gay people feel decreasingly like they need a safe space in which to buy
The Bookstore that Changed America
Co-founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
City Lights
555
(261 Columbus Ave., at Broadway;
%
415/362-8193; www.citylights.com)
is probably the most famous independent bookstore in America. Once the
first place in the country to sell all paperbacks, it now comprises three
floors of both paperback and hardback books, many grouped in political or
socially aware categories such as “muckraking.” It even publishes its own
books, with around 100 titles currently in print that range from great
thinkers including Noam Chomsky and Tom Hayden to that old Bay Area
stalwart, noir. This monument of the Beat generation isn't quite the hive
of activity it was back in the day, and I find the staff rather stuck-up, but
I always seem to go home with some hard-to-find title, and the store is
still a required stop for the literary-minded. Happily, you're encouraged to
browse as long as you like, and even to read a little. As you might expect,
this destination bookstore schedules about 10 events a month, from
author readings to awards announcements. You can pick up a list of what's
upcoming at its front desk or check it out online.
