Bookless in San Francisco

In the past few years, downtown San Francisco has lost all of its big bookstores. Most recently, in the wake of Borders' bankruptcy, we saw two Borders stores close downtown. A year or so earlier, we lost the large independent Stacey's bookstore and the Virgin Megastore (which wasn't primarily books, but it had a large books section). And before that, in 2007 we lost a large Cody's Bookstore.

All of those stores were within a relatively short walking distance of my office. If I wanted to pick up a book or new magazine, or if I just wanted to browse, I had many choices.

Now, there is no large downtown San Francisco bookstore. None. In fact, within the downtown area proper, how many bookstores of any type are left? Ignoring the stores on the periphery of the business district (and there are some good, unique small bookstores, such as Kayo Books) and a couple in Chinatown (you can quibble over whether Chinatown is in "downtown" or if it's a neighboring district), there's only one store that I know of: Alexander Book Company on Second Street off Market. It, too, is a nice bookstore. But it is not a giant one, and it is not large enough to be an anchor bookstore for a major city's downtown.

Will Barnes & Noble set up shop in any of the vacant space? That company currently only has one store in the city, off in the somewhat hard-to-access Fisherman's Warf area. A prime downtown store near the Powell Street subway station or Union Square could be a coup. Then again, B&N is reportedly up for sale, and it might not be in an expansionary mood.

Will an independent company set up a large store downtown? That would be a wonderful occurrence, but getting funding for a bookstore in the current economy is likely to be difficult, to say the least.

It looks more likely that this busy downtown area, filled with over-educated people, will go forward for the foreseeable future being severely bookstore-deprived.

The Latest Shopping Spree

My stack of partially read periodicals grows, weighted down by my latest trips to the bookstores. At this rate, reading my magazines will become a full-time occupation. Or maybe I just need to start reading thinner magazines ...

Monocle number 23: Everything from kindergarten design to how the Danish navy (they have one?) is busy fighting pirates. Plus a report on terrorist funding methods, some manga, and -- shocker! -- Switzerland has efficient railroads.

The Advocate June/July 2009: Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk) is the coverboy for an issue featuring a profile of him. There's also an extended special section profiling gay leaders under the age of 40. Not to mention lots of travel and some food info, reports on gay pride celebrations around the world, and a look at American Idol's maybe-gay finalist.

Der Spiegel Geschichte: A stunningly beautiful history magazine ("geschichte" is German for "history"), this issue is entirely devoted to the story of the end of the Roman empire and the not-too-minor role played by the Germans in wrapping up that chapter of history. The magazine's written completely in German, but it's almost worth the cover price just for all of the great photos and illustrations for those who don't understand German. Or it's a good incentive to brush up on your high school foreign language. It's published by Der Spiegel, the giant German newsweekly that is a favorite of mine for its high quality, in-depth reports, and lack of cover stories on Britney Spears.

Analog July/August 2009: A special double issue (which is part of its normal print schedule -- Analog publishes two double issues each year -- not a recession-induced doubling of summer issues, about which I wrote earlier), featuring tons of short stories (by Barry B. Longyear, Daniel Hatch, etc.) I hope I have the time to actually read.

Timeto hit the books.