Library Walk

I had some books due and some I was keen to take a look at, so I headed to the city Friday after lunch.. A librarian at the SF Main branch had recommended I check out the Richmond Branch up near 9th & Geary..

Since my last walk was a success I decided the day was nice enough to walk there.. Oh! but the grade was such that it took me some time!

Exiting the Montgomery BART station, the Hobart Building comes into view:



Daytime Neon.. passing "High Tide Lounge"


Drive-In..


this hill kicked my butt..


First Unitarian Universalist at Gough & Geary.. I totally got confused by this intersection at Gough.. but managed..

It was a straight shot from here to the library.. just a really long uphill walk. I've decided next time I'll take the bus there and then walk home!

The light wasn't ideal for many of the images I wanted to take, so there's very few.. When you see this next one, you'll see what the issue was:


Richmond Branch SF Public Library.. an amazing selection (considering the availability) of Russian Language reading materials.. Including children's book selections.

Once I got to the library I turned around and found I could see our friend Sutro Tower from the steps of the Richmond District Library.. So of course I couldn't end my post here without including it..


..and yes, I did check some books out. I ran into a super nice, helpful young gentleman librarian who helped me find a couple useful books and pointed me in the direction of some other books I could take a look through. I plan to read and work through over the Spring Break. When I return the books hopefully the sun will be at a different angle (time of day at least) so I can try to shoot some photos again..

I managed to run "Map My Walk" during the Geary from Downtown to 9th portion, so I know I walked well over the 4mi. here (for example: to & from home to the BART station back in Berkeley is a half mile each way, and then after the Richmond library I walked to 20th & Geary and back to 16th & Geary for tea before taking the bus back to Market from 17th..)


MAP MY WALK: Geary St. (link to route and elevation w/splits, etc..)

San Francisco Public Library

Spending some time in the City earlier today.. I checked out the Main Branch library this afternoon, (and got a library card before I headed out.) The first thing I saw when I walked in was this lovely glass domed skylight.. I was like "Wait a minute!"



I wasn't supposed to be thinking about maths today! =) ..and yet I was:

(the skylight had me thinking of an old book..)

The next thing I noticed was the sheer size and contrasting newness while all around was the unmistakable smell of musty old books.

stairs.. there's some 6 floors..


here at the entry you cross over a bridge of sorts and look down onto the first floor:


I made sure to get a library card before I headed out. They didn't have the book I wanted to checkout but I could place a hold order but would rather not make a special trip to the city just to borrow a book,(unless it's a really good book!) Yeah, I'm lazy like that. ;)

The sun was starting to fade.. time to go home! I couldn't leave without a photo of one of the Market Streetcars..

Grey Skies

Berkeley Public Library Central Branch at Shattuck & Kittredge..

Banned Books at the BPL..

Banned books reading at the Berkeley Public Library.. Central Branch. Local actors from Berkeley Repertory Theatre: Howard Swain, Lorri Holt, and Sarita Ocon read their picks from books that have been banned at one time or another..




Howard Swain reads from Captain Underpants..

Howard Swain reads Alan Ginsberg's "Howl"



Lorri Holt reads from "A Wrinkle in Time.."


Along with "Always Running", Sarita Ocon read selection from one of my favorites: writer-poet Sherman Alexie! Here she reads from "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." yay!

Not a huge crowd but really cool hour spent.. Saturday the 27th (when I'm actually posting this) is a community bike ride "Banned Books Bike Tour".. riding about 7 miles, stopping at each library for readings from "Of Mice & Men.."

On Track to Excelsior

Tonight was a talk on SF streetcars with Rick Laubscher, author of On Track: A Field Guide to San Francisco's Historic Streetcars and Cable Cars.

The spouse was interested so we BART-ed in together to the Glen Park station and walked the 15 or so minutes to the Excelsior Branch of the SF Public Library.


Rick Laubscher about to give his talk.

The event was filmed so it should be posted to the SF Public Library's "You Tube" account ..at some point in the next couple weeks.

**edit** here's a link to the video posted back in September..

Pete Najarian at the Berkeley Public Library

The Central Branch of the Berkeley Public Library held a reception for local author and painter Pete Najarian earlier this afternoon. Najarian has written several works which often featuring his portraiture (Daughters of Memory, The Artist and His Mother) or landscape paintings (The Great American Loneliness.)


Najarian points out details of his Berkeley Marina painting.. He explained that along with painting near the Marina, he often heads to the 2nd Street area of West Berkeley on weekends when traffic is light to non-existent. He explained the big buildings aid as a wind break while he works. The painting on the left was created at Cedar and 2nd, looking south.


Walking the attendees through the various works on exhibition, Najarian explained how he had taken a landscape painting class at Berkeley; he and his fellow painters would go to paint near the Berkeley Marina. Some of the paintings feature fellow painters or landscapes from across the Bay looking toward Albany.. or the Berkeley Hills.

The installation went up on the 7th of July in the first floor "Central Catelog Lobby." As you're heading toward the short stairs to the 2nd floor historic Central Lobby and Reference desk floor, be sure and stop and look around you. You can check out Mr Najarian's painting retrospective until the 3rd of August during regular library hours.


Berkeley Public Library (Central Branch)
2090 Kittredge

Central Library

afternoon sun shines on the Central Library as a window-washer works from above.