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better news than a health care bill
Dec. 24th, 2009 08:16 amIn courtesy especially to residents from other climes who otherwise might not hear about it before their next visit:
Black Oak Books, a mixture of new and used which was one of Berkeley's finest, driven out of its longtime North Shattuck location a year and a half ago by punitive rents, has found a new home just as they promised.
It'll now be down in the flatlands of West Berkeley, at 2618 San Pablo Ave. (why couldn't they put the address in the article?), three blocks south of Dwight Way. Three blocks south of Dwight? I never go to that part of San Pablo, but I guess I will now.
"We're not stocking Sarah Palin's book, but we won't sneer at someone who requests it," says the manager. Naturally this has generated some right-wing huffing in the comments. (Maybe they should sneer? I mean, that's what you go to Berkeley for, right?) Really, though, not carrying everything but ordering anything on request is customary at any general new-books store. Since the signal virtue of a physical store is the browsing, I judge such stores by the selection of which few dozen, out of the hundreds of new commercial books in print at any time, they choose to put out on their display tables to catch the wandering eye.
By those standards I miss the Cody's on Telegraph the most, as they always had on display lots of books I'd never heard of but which fascinated me. But Black Oak, a a strong double-threat with new and used, was always dangerous to visit. You'd go in but you could fall so far under the spell of all those books that you ... might ... never ... come ... out.
Black Oak Books, a mixture of new and used which was one of Berkeley's finest, driven out of its longtime North Shattuck location a year and a half ago by punitive rents, has found a new home just as they promised.
It'll now be down in the flatlands of West Berkeley, at 2618 San Pablo Ave. (why couldn't they put the address in the article?), three blocks south of Dwight Way. Three blocks south of Dwight? I never go to that part of San Pablo, but I guess I will now.
"We're not stocking Sarah Palin's book, but we won't sneer at someone who requests it," says the manager. Naturally this has generated some right-wing huffing in the comments. (Maybe they should sneer? I mean, that's what you go to Berkeley for, right?) Really, though, not carrying everything but ordering anything on request is customary at any general new-books store. Since the signal virtue of a physical store is the browsing, I judge such stores by the selection of which few dozen, out of the hundreds of new commercial books in print at any time, they choose to put out on their display tables to catch the wandering eye.
By those standards I miss the Cody's on Telegraph the most, as they always had on display lots of books I'd never heard of but which fascinated me. But Black Oak, a a strong double-threat with new and used, was always dangerous to visit. You'd go in but you could fall so far under the spell of all those books that you ... might ... never ... come ... out.
