Mind-Boggling Bookstore Venture

Laptop problems and broken eye glasses nearly halted my writing for a couple weeks but I’m now back and writing from San Francisco. I had been warned about the weather in the Bay Area. Cold, windy and foggy, they said. Not so far. The weather has been pretty much nice or at least acceptable compared to winter in New York City. The weather has allowed for exploration of the southwest corner of the city on foot. Necessary since I lack an automobile. To begin with, I discovered a bookstore, which is something I’m always trying to find in my new neighborhood.

This bookstore, humorous and a little odd, is indication of a business man with a creative mind. It is called ODE Bookstore. A large sign over the front door makes this announcement. The name comes from simply removing a B, R, another R and an S. If you haven’t figured it out the sign used to say BORDERS. This is one of the infamous stores closed when the chain went bankrupt. The new name also indicates to me that it is an ode to books. Yes, real books. Apparently the owner of ODE bought about 40,000 of the remaining books after Borders disappeared. According to the New York Times the cost to the new owner was $50,000. He leased the 35,000 square foot store and is selling the books at huge discounts. Yes, the books tend to be a little out of date and you will need to search but there are great bargains. According to the retail staff the owner plans to buy books from other sources to keep the independent bookstore supplied.

The location seems ideal, adjacent to San Francisco State University, a busy Trader Joe’s and the Stonestreet Mall.

My drop-in visit to the ODE Bookstore resulted in the purchase of two books. Two books I was specifically looking for by two of my favorite authors: Charming Billy by Alice McDermott and If the River Was Whiskey by TC Boyle. The listed prices on the books totaled $28. My actual purchase price was $7.00. I am not complaining. An independent bookstore to replace a failing (apparently) chain store that can sell books of quality for prices like that will continue to get my business. Yeah, it’s not fancy and doesn’t have high priced coffee but what do I care? Hope the ODE to books not only survives but thrives.

Stan the Man    

New York to San Francisco: Mind-Boggling

Our latest transition brings immense change. It is absolutely mind-boggling. Here we are in San Francisco. It is a city in which I have never thought about living. Likewise, it had never entered my mind to live in New York City which we just left a week ago after living there almost three years. I haven’t seen much or experienced much of San Francisco yet but my initial impression is that it is considerably different that New York. Of course, there is only one New York City and one Manhattan in that city.

In comparing San Francisco and New York City statistically we find New York has a population of 8.1 million living in a land area of 302 square miles. This means there are 27,016 New Yorkers living in every square mile. That’s crowded in my book and it felt that way. Meanwhile in San Francisco the population is 805,235 and San Franciscans live in only 46 square miles for a per square mile population of 17,169. It still sounds crowded to me. Actually, these two cities rank first and second in the U.S. in terms of density of population. San Francisco’s physical size is one of the smallest of the larger cities.

The climates of the two cities are decidedly different. New York receives an average of 50 inches of precipitation each year while San Francisco gets only 20 inches. New York’s winters, as I can attest, can be long, cold and snowy. Granted, they haven’t been this year but the last two winters saw single snowfalls of over 20 inches with frigid temperatures.

San Francisco has a reputation of being cold. This has not been true upon our arrival. It has been sunny and around sixty degrees. Of course that isn’t Florida where it is in the 80s but it does allow one to be outside to see the flowers in bloom and the majestic green trees. The trees in New York are currently naked of leaves appearing as dark skeletons against the gray sky. Here I haven’t yet seen a tree without leaves or needles and many shrubs are in bloom. This is early February. We’ve only had a brief glimpse of the famous San Francisco fog. Of course, we haven’t been here a week yet. We have much more to learn and see in the Bay Area.

Of course anyone who follows football will know that the Super Bowl is this coming Sunday. The New York Giants got to the Super Bowl by beating the beloved San Francisco 49ers with a last second field goal. I don’t think anyone in the Bay Area will be rooting for the hated Giants on Sunday.

There will be much more to write about as this latest mind-boggling transition develops.

Stan the Man Baxter