Oakland Bookshops

Audrey and I are house-sitting in Oakland/Rockridge/Emeryville. While she slaves away at architectural drawings, I stay home and read. Occasionally I sortie and invade a local bookshop.

Diesel, a Bookstore (Oakland)

Mixed used and new. I didn't find anything I wanted. The used books are disorganised, as far as I can tell. Some are mixed in with the new.

Pendragon New & Used Books (Oakland)

Mixed used and new. Much better organised than Diesel, and with more used books. Purchased: The Sizesaurus, Stephen Strauss; Living with Jazz: A Reader, Dan Morgenstern; Divided by a Common Language: A Guid to British and American English, Christopher Davies; Torn Wings and Faux Pas: A Flashbook of Style, a Beastly Guide through the Writer's Labyrinth, Karen Elizabeth Gordon; and Curse + Berate in 69+ Languages, R. V. Branham, which is typeset and laid out just as atrociously as the title would make you believe.

Mrs. Dalloway's

Upscale neighbourhood store focusing on gardening and literature. There were quite a number of cook books and such, too. Not cheap, not large, no used, but a fine selection. Purchased: Instructions for British Servicemen in Germany 1944, reproduced from the original issued by The Foreign Office, London; Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution, Thomas McNamee; and Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Area: A History & Guide, Mitchell Schwarzer.

Dark Carnival

Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Mystery. Also some True Crime, Science, Art, Graphic Novels, and what-have-you. Huge collection of Uglydolls, Giant Microbes, and other trendy and not so trendy things you may see Japanime addicted teens and Jeff Albertson collect. Purchased: Maskerade, Terry Pratchett and Gladiatrix: The True Story of History's Unknown Woman Warrior, Amy Zoll. The latter has an absurdly grandiose subtitle, but fighting chicks are hott.

Next week I may venture farther out and try (the other) Pegasus & Pendragon and Black Oak (I used to love the SF location, just South of Golden Gate Park).