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!

So when First Stop disappeared for the Main Library First Floor renovation around September, we were bummed, but eager for its swift return. But the renovation is apparently done now -- and it looks like First Stop isn't coming back??? WHAT??? The new First Floor of the Main Library will now host all fiction and genre books, the popular DVD section, and new spiffy ways to check books out -- but where's First Stop going to be??? We're freaking out!!

We're hoping against hope that we're just panicking for no reason and First Stop is just getting moved to another floor -- but we cannot find its new location anywhere on the SF Public Library website. We're totally about to cry! Can someone let us know, either if First Stop is gone forever (sniff!), or if it's just moving someplace else?

The official First Floor reopening party is set for Jan. 16. But it won't be a party without First Stop! We're typing through our tears!

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

--They're looking on the Oregon coast now for the missing Alameda County woman and her friend the priest. It's been three weeks. [The Chron.]

--Alamo Square was cordoned off this afternoon after gunfire on McAllister Street hit a motorist in the head. [ABC 7.]

--There were also shootings at Webster and Rose and Div and Fulton. [SFist Tips line]

--"Ed Jew Resign" stickers in Chinese are popping up in Chinatown. [The Wall.]

--People are having problems activating their iPhones. [the Merc News.]

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). Sounds exciting!

The idea is that as many folks as are willing will read this summer's selection, which is Cane River by Berkeley native Lalita Tademy. In the fall, the program will host events where we can discuss the ideas and themes presented in the story.

The book seems interesting enough: according to the OCOB program, it's an "extensively researched personal odyssey," where the author "brings to life four vivid and remarkable women in her family, beginning in slavery, sweeping through the Civil War, and into the pre-Civil Rights South."

So check it out if you are so inclined, and watch out for events in libraries, bookstores, and schools come this fall.

))<>((? Well, it's from her movie.

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.

Ms. July's artistic forte is in observing things which we take for granted in the everyday and peering at them from guileless angles until some surprise or (dis)comfort or wonder is revealed. An open sappy-less question of "sure, what-if?" asked seemingly without artifice or a second-thought. And what is found? Sometimes awe, sometimes regret, but always a bright gleam of humanity.

The stories in July's new book, No One Belongs Here More Than You, were written just before and just after she made her heart-warming/rending 2005 film Me And You And Everyone We Know.

Flattered by the packed house, July scaled a ladder (while wearing heels, to her mother's chagrin, she imagined) to the top of Modern Times' sideroom so as to provide better vantage rather than the floor-level lectern. More pictures after the jump.

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.

Also you can find some of Nancy's favorite YouTube bits, including such great bits as "Ask a Ninja: Special Delivery 4: Net Neutrality" and "Rubber Stamp Republican Congress." We, however, don't even want to know what "Rahm Emmanuel Reads a Love Letter" is all about. She also makes an attempt at hipness and has links to a video by liberal's fave cause celebre, the Dixie Chicks and of Pink singing "Dear Mr President" live. We wonder if our Nance has ever gotten a party started.

Oh, there's one more thing-- we checked out Nancy's friend list only to discover that she has none. It's lonely at the top.

They visit a struggling Sicilian family, who, when they do the accounting for the picture with a week's worth of food, is shocked to discover they spend more than $2,000 on cigarettes every year, as they purchase the packs one by one: by consuming products, be it cigarettes or food, in small quantities every day, one is immersed in the particular, and loses the sense of the big picture. Little streams, bad rivers, you know. One has little idea how much of this or that the rations of every meal eventually add up to. Cigarette is one bad habit, but on that dining room table, even in the developing world, many others find their way: processed food, junk food, bottles of soda, fast food. One week is enough to bring out some perspective into the consumption habits of a family and to draw some lessons already.

It is not a surprise that such a successful restaurant spawned a cookbook, aptly named Boulevard, following the path of many of the top restaurants in the Bay Area: Chez Panisse, Zuni Cafe (whose own Judy Rodgers wrote a few kind words on the cover of Boulevard), and the French Laundry.

It is this last book that Boulevard resembles the most: a large format with a hard-cover opening into beautifully laid-out pages. The book belongs as much on the coffee table as on a stand in the kitchen: each recipe is artfully illustrated with a tantalizing picture. Enough hints: if you still need a gift for someone for Christmas, this one won't disappoint.