Favorite Bookstores
I still miss Harvard Square. When I lived in the Boston area I could visit ten bookstores before lunch on a Saturday morning. In California the good bookstores were widely separated.
When you visit a good bookstore, you feel the intelligence applied to the selection of books. There's a balance between the classics in a subject and the newest and most interesting. Different stores are good at different subjects: I have a lot of interests and so I have a lot of favorite bookstores, each for different areas.
Washington/Baltimore Area
- Books With a Past, 2465 Washington Rd (Rt 97), Glenwood MD, 410.442.3740
- Marv and Mary Alice Schaefer's bookstore. Three stores wide in a strip mall, in the middle of green country Maryland. Lots of interesting used books. Fine sections on cryptography, mathematics, and classics. Open every day.
San Francisco Bay Area
Kepler's,
1010 El Camino, Menlo Park- Very good on current literature, best selection of periodicals. Autographed books and signing parties. The Cafe Barrone next door is a good place to sit outside with a latte and watch the children of the rich. (But I miss the old Kepler's. I like bookstores that have a comfortable back room, with a couch. And a cat.)
- Wessex,
558 Santa Cruz Av, Menlo Park
- Next to Kepler's. Fine used books, especially good on literature.
- City Lights,
261 Columbus Av, North Beach, San Francisco
- A wonderful store. Whole upstairs room devoted to poetry. Extensive section of foreign literature in translation.
- Moe's, Telegraph Av, Berkeley
- Paperbacks in the basement, used books upstairs. Rich and varied selection.
- Bell's Books, 536 Emerson St, Palo Alto
- More good used books, especially classics.
- Dark Carnival,
3086 Claremont Av, Berkeley (510) 654-READ
- Great all-science-fiction bookstore. Well, mysteries and horror too. And trinkets and toys.
- Computer Literacy,
(chain, I used to go to the one in the Apple complex)
- They do only one thing, but they do it right. All bookstores should be like this: helpful staff, large & varied stock.
Take a look at Robert Teeter's Bookstore Hall of Fame.
Updated 11/19/01