March 16, Sunday afternoon -- Reading Scott Adams

On my run up to Twin Peaks, about fifteen minutes from the top

top ^

I passed someone reading while walking down the street. I was out of breath so I stopped and took her picture. ...a good reason to run with a camera. This wasn't the only picture I took.

Reading The Joy of Work: Dilbert's Guide to Finding Happiness at the Expense of Your Co-workers.

She'd just picked it up from the free-bin at Phoenix books, a couple blocks back.

Do you have a favorite neighborhood bookstore? Mine is Adobe, on 16th Street and Valencia, where owner, Andrew McKinley, once let artist, Chris Cobb, reorganize the store from the typical (boring?) topic and author to another system--colors of book spines. If you click the link you can see the display. It is beautiful. The reds fade to oranges, to yellows, and on into, my favorite--lush, verdant, Twin Peaks green.

21 Comments:

IliadandtheOddysey said...

wow thats pretty amazing! a little difficult to find what your looking for though! (unless you know what color the book's spine happens to be XD)
My favorite store is Books and Crannies in Tehachapi, CA

Che said...

Walking and reading - that's awesome! I remember getting in trouble in grade school for reading while I crossed the street after school.

Anil P said...

A few years down the line people will turn to your blog to find out what people read, and why they read what they read.

These 'little' encounters freeze time to the minute. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your effort.

SuetheRaven said...

This fantastic bookstore reminds me of a book by Richard Brodagan(sp?)about a library where no one took books out ...it was for people to put their own books in.

Quirky and wonderful.

Cheers

Neva said...

If you ran up this road, I am nothing but impressed! I was in San Francisco last week and took some pictures of this road...wow....all the people that bike in San Fran amaze me. and those peopleon scooters, or vespas or motorbikes are AWFUL as they weave in and out of traffic. Loved San Fran though....

Special K said...

I have a lot of favorite bookstores - the biggest and most amazing is Powells in Portland - I LOVE Green Apple in San Francisco, in Chicago I like Women and Children First and a tiny used bookstore called Rock and Read (they also sell records).

Bill said...

Knowing a few engineers, I'd say Dilbert's often hit the mark of how absurd things get.

This is a really neat blog, a daily celebration. The spirit here is great.

I'm new to blogging and its etiquette. I just started one. It's different, but I hope it has a bit of the spirit that People Reading has. To just post the address (though it looks like others do) seems a bit tacky to me. Any thoughts to guide me from the more experienced?

Veronica said...

my favorite bookstore is white birch books in north conway, new hampshire.

A. Stageman said...

Half Price Books. Looking for an obscure book that Barnes and Noble doesn't carry? Half Price Books has it. It's huuuge and there's a little coffee shop connected to it. Also, all the employees there are of the artsy type and have tattoos and crazy hair. My kinda place.

Susan Kruse said...

There used to be a great second-hand bookstore in a lovely seaside town in England called Padstow. Imagine the cry of seagulls, fishing boats bobbing in the harbour, the smell of our British dish of fish and chips with lashings of vinegar and tiny, tiny narrow streets with tiny, tiny 300 year old houses....well this bookshop was in one of these houses, right on the harbour. It stayed open late into the evening so you could stroll through the town, have a beer and buy a book and enjoy the evening sunset. Brilliant!

Liza P. said...

I really love Skylight Books in Los Feliz (Los Angeles)

Sonya Worthy said...

Fun places!

Bill,
I'm not sure what the blogging etiquette is, either. I get annoyed when people post spam on my blog, but when there's a blog that's also about books or reading, I think it's great to post it in a comment. I should probably link to more blogs, too, in my links section, but haven't had a chance.

sonya

Barb said...

My favorite book store is the Salvation Army Thrift store. Whenever I find a book that looks interesting or I've heard of it, I buy it and bring it home. There, it sits in the office till I need a new book to read. Then, I browse and choose the one that seems interesting at the moment.

I've found two of my favorite kids' books in the past year by shopping that way: Orwell's Luck and Red Sky at Morning. I guess people who donate to the Salvation Army have great tastes in books!

CaBaCuRl said...

I adore your blog, and pointed any of my readers in your direction the other day.i would love to find a similar type of blog , here in Australia.Yes, yes, i know I could start one, but i live in a small coastal village, where most people have surboards or fishing rods in their hands!

Matthew said...

As I am proud of pointing out at every opportunity, my town of Montpelier, Vermont, population 8,000, has five independent, locally-owned bookstores and no national chains. They are all my favorites, though sadly one is closing its doors in the near future.

Anonymous said...

VERY cool blog. My sister commutes out of the ferry building, and I was wondering if you'd captured her!

Anonymous said...

I pretty much frequent Barnes & Noble. I wish there were a little hole in the wall bookstore where I would practically live.

Jen said...

You know, it's funny how people in the States or England wish for small bookstores and I was so fascinated when I saw my first huge 5-stories bookstores (FNAC in Madrid). A B&N would probably be a highlight of a trip. Really, it's awesome that you get to choose. Most Romanian bookstores are crammed, with unfriendly clerks and just bad atmosphere. And if you're looking for English books, tough luck.

That being said, my favorite is Carturesti, in downtown Bucharest, which you can read more about here: http://www.bookstoreguide.org/2007/11/carturesti-bookstore.html

The location is cool (old house, remonted), the people are nice, they have lots of books (plus a whole room dedicated to English).

Say Lee said...

In this age where size matters, your once popular neighborhood bookstores have by and large been squeezed out of existence by chains such as B&N abd Bordors. But some do persist like this one in my area, Inkwood Book, a full service independent bookstore not unlike Adobe, I think.

I used to be a member and frequented it before I moved away. So now my favorite bookstore is the local public library. Free reading anytime, whenever it's open.

Anonymous said...

used to be "the annapolis bookstore" when i lived in the d.c. area. used books, and teashop.

Katherine said...

My favorite bookstores, at least in New York (and you really should visit them if you're ever back East) are the Strand on Broadway and Shakespeare & Co. in the Village. Two very delightful independent bookstores with a lot of surprisingly wonderful books in them. In my immediate neighborhood in Brooklyn, I love Heights Books in Brooklyn Heights. It's a very old-fashioned used bookstore, with stacks of books everywhere and not just on shelves.