As previously mentioned, I took a one-week vacation in San Francisco in late August. It was great. It’s been a while since I traveled solo for fun rather than for work, and it was a delight to have my days entirely free to do whatever I felt like, never to have any particular place I needed to be: I could spend as much time walking as I wanted, I could eat what and when I wanted (which involved having cake instead of lunch one day), and I could linger in museums and bookstores as long as I felt like.
Speaking of books: San Francisco seems to have rather a lot of bookstores, many of which are really good. Despite browsing in quite a few, I only bought one book while I was there: a paperback copy (British, with the original price marked in GBP on the back) of English Hours by Henry James, which I got for $4 at Book Bay Fort Mason. I stumbled across Book Bay by chance, but it is definitely worth a visit: its proceeds go to the San Francisco Public Library, and the Fort Mason location (I didn’t visit the other one) is a really great shop, spacious and friendly and full of a broad variety of books. I was especially excited by all the cookbooks (though most were too big for me to want to take them home with me) and the essays/literary criticism section. The Fort Mason location is home to the Readers Cafe, which is in the back of the shop and also benefits the library. I didn’t pause for a beverage, but they serve Blue Bottle coffee, which is a promising sign. And Fort Mason is home to the Outdoor Exploratorium, which has quirky/informative/fun exhibits. My favorite of the ones that I saw was the House of Days, which is a building that takes pictures of the sky once an hour every day, but I also liked this Ship Constellations one, which is right outside of the building where Book Bay is located—after my shopping excursion, I paused on a bench to look at it and then noticed that there was a seal leaping in the water.
The only other semi-bookish thing I bought on this trip was the 2011 Moleskine Volant planner, which I got at the SFMOMA store. I bought the 2010 version on sale this January, and love it enough to not mind paying full price to make sure I have one for next year too. (Besides which, I don’t mind spending money at museums, generally: they’re good places, and I’d rather spend my money at SFMOMA than at Crate & Barrel, which is where I bought my 2010 planner.) It’s a full page-a-day planner, with weekend days getting their own pages too (which is often not the case in planners, and it drives me crazy when Saturday and Sunday are combined on one page or given much smaller spaces than the other days: I use these for personal life, not work, so weekends matter!). Each month is in its own book, each book is a different color, and there’s a carrying case so you can line them all up together if you want. I love having a small book to carry around rather than a bigger planner, and the design of these makes me smile.
I’m reading the Henry James book now, by the way, and it’s reminding me how much I love him. I have to slow way down when reading him, but it’s the kind of writing that makes me want to slow down, to move through the sentences at a leisurely pace, savoring the long clauses, the turns of phrase. Also, English Hours is funny. Also, I love reading about London. So all in all, I’m feeling like this book was the perfect purchase .
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