Reading a guidebook about your own town is always interesting. What did they forget? What did they get wrong? Not to mention what they found that you still haven't. And we have to admit, there were certainly some sites and activities in the book that we haven't actually been to or done. But that's to be expected from a travel guide that's more of an introduction to the kind of stories that locals take for granted and the average Frommers reader might never discover: Frank Chu, Emperor Norton, the Zodiac Killer, competing theories on why it's called "The Tenderloin."

Up to date, with at healthy sprinkling of snark, our reaction was that this would be the book we'd recommend a new arrival read before diving into the stream of SFist's consciousness (it helps that they give the 'Fist a big shout-out as a valuable online resource). It's chock full of ideas for dates, day trips, family fun and other ideas that might not have occurred to even some locals.

We met the authors Helene Goupil and Josh Krist, who also run online travel mag InsideOut, at a reception to celebrate the book's publication. They moved to San Francisco relatively recently, and this lends a nice balance of familiarity and curiousity -- we imagine researching the book was a great introduction into The City's mysteries. As they point out, a host of travel writers make their home here. Let's hope they stick around and keep turning out quality features about history and life in the Bay Area.