David, San Francisco is rather specially gifted in used bookstores, though.
It's true. When I was growing up, I'd excitedly wait for the new Yellow Pages to see if there were any new bookstores within reach of me and my bike. Now I can take them for granted. I basically know where they all are, but I don't have to hit all of them to get what I want. It's usually enough for me to hit the ones on Haight Street, or swoop by a few in Berkeley when I collect Emmett.
Speaking of which...wish me good traffic.
Aw, Hec, that's great.
I've never had a used bookstore like my favorite since. It was run by a Cool Dad that brought his daughter in there all the time. But a new one has opened I think.
And of course Changing Hands, Lefty Mecca.
Anyone who comes to Salt Lake, there is a bookstore here that rivals Powells. Seriously. It's called Sam Weller's, and it's right downtown. Yes, they shelve the used books with the new. Yes, they have an independant coffee shop inside. Yes, they have the obligatory used book store basement, so byzitinely designed you need a guide book and a trail of crumbs to find your way out.
you need a guide book and a trail of crumbs to find your way out.
"Out"? I don't understand. People actually try to get out?
That's the mother ship, baby!
Yes, but even the employees are afraid to venture down there. Particularly into the "Biography" section. There's no way you can get food delivered to you.
And you will soon run out of crumbs.
Well, I always knew, in the back of my mind, that books would kill me one way or another.
Mmmm, Sam Weller's ... the basement ... down the stairs, around the pillar, over the raised bit where they cut the hole through the wall, down a step and through the door ...
Have you been there lately, Connie?
I really, really like what they've done with it.
[Edit] And now that they've opened up the COffee Garden in there, that's where I get my coffee in the morning. I used to go to the (blech!) Starbucks in the Marriott on State, so I'm very very happy about this development. I hop off the light rail, and boom! My coffee's right there. Sometimes they see me coming and have it started before I get there.
