Reviews of independent bookstores because buying and reading books is an adventure
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2008.
Look up the town of Ojai in any tourist magazine or book, and the first thing you’ll learn is that its landscape was the stand in for Shangri-La in the old movie “Lost Horizon.” It is a beautiful place, about as close to paradise as you can get.
Except when it’s hot. It gets really hot there in the summer. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: California, California bookstore, Ojai, Ojai bookstore, used books
My heart sank as I walked up, the sign said ‘Warwick’s, Books, Gifts, Office Supply, Stationery,’ I thought the store would be a few paperback books, copier paper and tacky La Jolla postcards. My husband and I drove to La Jolla Cove mostly for memories sake, we both attended UCSD and spent the first four years of our relationship in La Jolla. I thought about skipping the store, but since we found parking I decided to walk in, bracing myself for disappointment. The beauty of low expectations is how great you feel when they are far surpassed. Warwick’s is wonderful. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: California, La Jolla, San Diego, unique
The 39 Clues
There’s a new kids’ series out there, called The 39 Clues. Scholastic Publishing set out, quite deliberately, to re-captivate the Harry Potter readership, by creating a series that combines an incredibly elaborate and detailed Web site with the rolling publication of ten books, each written by a different author. For more information on their thinking and the whole project, read the New York Times article about it. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: kids
Any Northern Californian, or anyone who lived in Northern California or has had to fly through San Francisco fears the dreaded words, ‘flight delayed due to weather conditions,’ when sitting in the San Francisco International Airport. I recently flew out of SFO with my family and as we drove into the airport I willed the fog to lift and searched the skies for planes taking off or landing–nothing. By the time we arrived at the gate, the runways were in full swing, but our flight was delayed due to weather conditions where we were landing.
I walked down the concourse in search of coffee, gum, candy and newspapers, our airplane survival kit. I picked them all up at Compass Books and went back to my gate. As I sat down, it occurred to me that Compass Books was different from the usual airport bookstore. Most airport bookstores I’ve seen are part 7/11, part newsstand, and part bookstore with Nora Roberts and self-help books spread across the book table. Not that I don’t like those books, rest assured, when I’m on a bad flight, I’m not reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, I’m clutching on to a plot driven book that I can follow in a state of panic. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: airport, California, San Francisco
Claire
Kim
