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Posts Tagged ‘Books’

Let’s Give Me Something to Talk About

Posted in Events, Tid Bits, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on September 30, 2009 | 2 Comments »

As promised, I did make it to the 45th Annual Big Book Sale at Fort Mason last weekend, and hobbled out of the pavilion with a dozen novels and a book about local architecture for only $15. But in addition to my reading material, I also bought 10 records for a buck each. Styx, the Police, New Orleans’ Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Bonnie Raitt, to name a few. The catch? I don’t own a turntable. Oops! (No, I did not buy Styx for the large full color poster inside!)

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I’ve done a preliminary eBay search for a used one, but I’m not sold on anything just yet. The thing is, though, I’m kicking myself for not buying one at a garage sale I stumbled upon in the neighborhood last month. A record player has been on my wish list for sometime, but now with ten records looming in my apartment, the race is on. Until then, I guess the crowd at Encore Karaoke will have to suffer through me singing “Something to Talk About” to help fill the void. If anyone has any leads on an affordable record player in the ‘hood, let me know!

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Forget Librarians, Cheap Books are Sexy

Posted in Events, tagged , , , , , on September 25, 2009 | 3 Comments »

booksI was browsing in the Russian Hill Bookstore this winter, and I turned to my friend and said idly, “You can never have too many books.” He mocked: “So says the girl with one stack of books.” A little taken back, I defended my singular tower of literature by insisting that I had more in storage. But later, after the staircase wit had settled in, I realized that a “Dude, it’s 2009, we all have Kindles,” might have been more successful.

Nevertheless, I still really do have one lonely stack of books in my apartment, and it’s about time I change that. This week kicked off the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library 45th Annual Big Book Sale at Fort Mason Center’s Festival Pavilion where over 300,000 books, DVDs, CDs, books-on-tape, and vinyl sell for $5 or less. All proceeds from the sale benefit library programs which promote literacy, and just to give you an idea, $265,000 was raised at the ’08 sale. (more…)

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A Faded Hardcover Reveals Mad Men-Style Cooking

Posted in Stores, tagged , , , , , , on September 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »

I am not going to lie — well, right now at least. I enjoy stepping onto the escalator at Barnes & Noble, running my fingers across the spines of crisp and shiny tomes, and spending $24.95 on one brand spankin’ new paperback that will inherently lose value as soon as I strut out of the store. I’m not going to wax poetic about how I love the smell of the dusty books in my municipal library stacks. It’s a nice notion, but in reality, aging doesn’t exactly turn me on.madisonavenue

But, but, what I will concede is that used bookstores and libraries are a gold mine of scarce and out-of-print books, books that not even Google knows about, that have never seen the light of Amazon, and that will go on largely forgotten and unpublicized until some heroic blogger (ahem) decides to plug them. We are lucky enough to have one of our own used bookstores in our midst, the Russian Hill Bookstore (2234 Polk at Green).

The shop is the source of the latest addition to my home library, a hilarious cookbook by a ’60s ad man. Want to hear about it? (more…)

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