Results tagged “reads”

Ever since the SFist Reads column turned us back onto the awesomeness of checking books out of the SF Public Library, we've been big fans of the First Stop area of the Main Library, where the library put all their books they'd acquired in the last two years. We've spent many a pleasant few hours checking out the latest memoirs, or all the books in the 300 section, or randomly pulling out titles in the New Fiction section to see if they look entertaining. It's like browsing your TiVo listings for fun shows, only wrapped in library plastic!

We had a good time going through the recipes and eating stories in Street Food, the new book by wunderkind Tom Kine - that is, when we got over the insane jealousy. He got a book contract to travel for three months and eat all he could! How do we get something like that? We're excited to try his takes on bolani (Afghan flat bread) and Kadu (roast pumpkin paste), which he got from Bilal, who runs a stall at the Kaiser Farmer's Market in Oakland. Kine even includes party ideas at the end...fun!

--A guy jumped onto the field to say hi to Barry Bonds yesterday. Arrested, drunk. [The Chron photo pool, the Snitch.]

While San Francisco is known globally for a certain worldview, those of us who actually live here know that when it comes down to particulars, we don't often agree. We can't agree on Blue Angels. We can't agree on a Muni solution. Heck, we can't even agree on what to do about Ed Jew (oh no!). But you know a banner we can all unite under? The One City One Book: San Francisco Reads program. Imagine, hordes of people reading a sort of narrative story on paper! No electricity required (save, perhaps, for reading lights).

Author/artist/director/performer/etc Miranda July came by Modern Times Bookstore in The Mission last night to read from her new collection of short stories, and the arty-coiffed standing-room-only crowd of fans spilled out the door onto the sidewalk.

We told you, Colts vs. Bears in the Super Bowl. Man, we knew we should have gone to Vegas. Anyways, we're happy with the game, not necessarily because it'll be a good game, but because it's two of the original NFL teams with great traditions and great, traditional uniforms. How could you not love a game that harkens back to the 50's and 60's?

Tartine Bakery is the perfect illustration of the Yogi Berra aphorism: nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded. We live walking distance from the 18th and guerrero shop, yet we shun the place many a week-end morning, not feeling up to standing in that long line, no matter how good the frangipane croissant or the banana cream pie. (Also, we slightly resent them for creating a smaller portion of the yummy bread pudding topped with seasonal fruits, instead of the earlier one-size-fits-all. We know have pang of guilts ordering the large one, the only one we ever want, but now made unreasonable by the smaller one).

We would like any polar bear who plays the accordion, or bunny who glows in the dark. But what won us over for the Octonauts & the Only Lonely Monster, a children's book released earlier this month by San Francisco publisher Immedium, is that, out of the eight animals who compose the Octonaut team, there are both a sea-ottery scientist and an octopussy professor. That’s at least 25% of the crew with a doctorate degree. A much better ratio than the A-Team.

(thanks for the recommendation, SFist Jeremy! We love it!) can tell you that working in a bookstore is oftentimes a thankless task. Props to those Green Apple kids, who do their jobs with a casual grace, and who clearly enjoy what they do. What other bookstores harbor employees who deserve shoutouts? Let us know in the comments!

Hey, did anyone go to the poets Eleven event at the new Mission Bay branch of the San Francisco Public Library? We love that we have a reason to hit the library besides picking up (or returning) our online reserves.

We're having one of those weeks where we're completely unsatisfied with every book we pick up, even those from authors we ordinarily like. The new Fay Weldon just made us glad that we're a) childless and b) not British, and the Jonathan Ames we just picked up from the SFPL is leaving us cold. He just seems so anxious about everything, and he always has an erection.

While the San Francisco Public Library site is up, their search is not! Far be it from us to criticize anyone for the occasional technical bobble. Get well soon, SFPL search!

We've taken to leaving the house -- sometimes for hours at a time -- without a jacket, which can only mean one thing: it's Summer Book Club time. Dude, look at the stipulations: "Small incentive prizes will be awarded to enrolled children who have read for two, four and six hours during the eight weeks of Summer Reading." When we were a kid, we read six hours a day (our "honey, don't you want to go outside?" parents will attest to this). We would clean up at ther SFPL's club! Oh, to be under 13 again.

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We were stumbling around the internets yesterday and discovered that our very own Ms. Pelosi has set up a YouTube page. How with it, our Ms. Pelosi. And what will you find there? Oh, just clips of her playing soccer, lip-synching to pop hits, and ranting into a web cam whenever Tim Russert refuses to take her phone call. And boy, is her "Lazy Sunday" parody, "Lazy Appropriations", hilarious ("Lazy Appropriations start debate in the late afternoon/call Steny Hoyer just to see how he's doing/Hello? What up Stens?/Yo Pelosi what's cracking?/You thinking what I'm thinking? (Earmarks!)/Then it's happening"!). No, actually, you'll find clips of her and her peeps giving speeches on the House floor. Sadly, none of them appear to be mash ups with clips from anime cartoons.

Hungry Planet, the latest book by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, visits 30 families in 24 countries to take a look at what they eat. The book's subtitle is What the World Eats but the authors are a couple from Napa, the publisher from Berkeley: this is a local effort, and we can chauvinistically be proud of the James Beard Foundation award it just received. Each family in the book is photographed with all the food they would eat in one week displayed on the dining room table, or whatever substitutes for a dining room or a table. The effect is striking as one can see at a glance how much, or how little one family eats in different countries.

Have you checked out the eBooks and eAudio at the SFPL? We're itching to try out the audio options, but they don't have anything that works on Macs or iPods. Boo!

Every spring we have a major purge and get rid of a lot of the books we've accumulated over the past year. We sell what we can at a local used bookstore, before donating the rest to the Friends of the SFPL. Any recommendations on where we can get the biggest bang for our book sale? Let us know in the comments!

In a shameless bit of self-reference, we will announce that it's our birthday, and we have therefore been the happy recipient of more than one Amazon gift certificate over the course of the day. We're not the kind of a**hole who complains about a gift (shut up, we're not!), but we did have a moment of crisis: how do we reconcile our sincere and public support of our fine local independent bookstores with the use of these GCs? One option is to duck the book issue and treat ourselves to that ice cream maker we've always wanted, but we know ourselves too well -- despite our best intentions it'll end up on the shelf next to our waffle maker and George Foreman grill. Then, we remembered commenter Karen, who reminded us that independent bookstore purchases can be made by choosing the "Used and New" option. Thanks, Karen, for solving our dilemma! SFist commenters are the best!

While the name of this column is "SFist Reads", we have to ask: has anyone used the SFPL's online reserve system to reserve DVDs? We're just not as Netflixy as we used to be, and we're starting to wonder if the library might be a good substitute. Let us know your experiences in the comments!

We don't know if we have a library guardian angel or if our late return repeat offender status has put us in a special class, but we've started getting "courtesy notes" in our inbox when the due dates approach on our checked-out items. Of course, when we get an email from the SFPL we get all excited and assume our online reserves are in, but a reminder to get our stuff in on time is pretty nice, too.

Geez, the SF Public Library's site is sloooow today. We might not have the patience to make any online reserves, and might have to head straight to one of our fine local independent bookstores. Yes, folks, it's that kind of day.

Glowing piece in Inc. aside, we hear that Kepler's may be in trouble again. Folks, when you can, please support your local bookstores. Sure, we all gotta Amazon sometimes, but don't forget to send some money the way of the bookstores in our community, or all we'll be left with is a bunch of Borders and Barnes and Nobles.

http://liz-henry.blogspot.com/2006/04/lambda-lit-night.html">this link to Liz Henry's experiences at Lambda Lit night. In his words, "The contrast between the two events is, I think, instructive", and we're inclined to agree. As Mark asks on his blog, "Why does there have to be such a gap between the old scene and the new scene?" Let us know what you think in the comments!

Leave work early today for the Northern California Book Awards! It's all happening at the Main Library (100 Larkin Street), starting with a 5 p.m. book signing and reception with many of the nominated authors in the Latino/Hispanic Room. The awards ceremony starts at 6 in the Koret Auditorium. Admission for the event is free.

We just discovered the Branch Library Improvement Program Bookmobile and we are IN LOVE. We're switching all our online reserves to the bookmobile, we're that excited. Seriously, some of our happiest childhood memories involve the bookmobile! (Mom, save your email. We have many excellent childhood memories, some of which involve the bookmobile, others of which involve the many other wonderful things you have done for us. Envy not the bookmobile!) But our crush on the bookmobile doesn't mean that we're still not loyal patrons of our fine local independent bookstores. But, dude, bookmobile!

We've never had much occasion to use MapMuse, an interest-based interactive mapping service. That is, until we saw that now they're mapping independent bookstores and book clubs. We think that this is pretty damned neat. Between that and the SFPL's online reserve system, we might not ever have to brave Barnes and Noble again!

) than to buy them. We're just frugal like that.

Oh, how we love the San Francisco Public Library. The online reserve system, the many convenient branches, and how cool is the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection (thanks for the tip, Dad!)? You can look at their collection online, or view it in person at the Main Library's San Francisco History Center. We love our library!

We're reading books both old and new, books accessed via the SFPL's online reserve system and our local independent bookstores. Thisd is why we love doing this column -- we love seeing the diversity of our friends book choices. What are you reading? Share with the class in the comments.