San Francisco Area Bookstore Tour

I've been out of town for about a week and a half, supposedly attending the San Francisco Garden Show.  What I was REALLY doing, as evidenced by the following pictures, was visiting EVERY SINGLE INDIE BOOKSTORE in the greater SF Bay area.  Shhhhh. Don't tell.

A lot of people say to me "Books are books, yes? Why bother carting them all over the country?"  For me, books are the best trip souvenir. When I read a book purchased on a vacation, I remember where I got it, and think fondly of that trip.  I remember the little bookstore and am usually excited to think about the day when I might sometime return.  Here is a little photo-journey through my book buying frenzy last week.

Starting With Santa Cruz

By the time my friends and I got to this bookstore, they were powerless to resist my urge to spend, and I left with, maybe, 10 books?  My favorite title?  "Alluring Lettuces"  I just love lettuce.  I also loved the way they organized their staff pics.  Here's one collection: Natural Disasters.

They had all kinds of goodies, including neat stationary and funny post cards.  I got a book of post cards to send to my "Adopt a Platoon" soldier. Here's a snapshot of the inside of "Bookshop Santa Cruz."

Next Stop: Some Place in Sonoma

I don't have a picture of this shop. But, I did buy two books there: The Lost Art of Walking, about walking, and Big Dreams, about California. The Indie Bound bag from higher up in this post is from that shop.  There were actually TWO bookshops in Sonoma, right across the street from each other, but only one was open on the Monday we were there.

Moving on to Sunset Magazine, etc. Headquarters

We don't hear a lot about Sunset here on the East Coast, because it is a publisher of primarily western-oriented books and a magazine. A magazine that I'll probably subscribe to, just because it is so cool.  Sunset was started by the Pacific Railroad company to entice easterners to move west.  Well, it worked.

Today, it's a home-garden-lifestyle magazine that covers five zones out west, and includes dozens of books.  Their headquarters are just south of San Mateo, where the SF Garden Show was held.  HQ is in an historic ranch-style building, behind which is a magnificent garden with zones representing the five Sunset zones covered in their magazines, and an adorable test garden.  Free to the public, Monday-Friday, and well worth a visit. 

A Bookstore at the SFGS Show? Say it Ain't So!

What home and garden show is complete without a bookseller? THANK GOODNESS that Builders Booksource set up to sell books by all of the lecturers at the show, and a WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER GOODIES. I'm PRETTY sure that this is the bookstore that I sped by with my friend on the way to visit the UC Berkley Botanic Garden.  Scott, husband of my dear friend Natalie, and friend to me when he DOESN'T PREVENT ME FROM STOPPING AT BOOKSTORES, bravely kept going past this place, while risking threat of grievous bodily harm because he didn't let me stop.  THANKFULLY, I got to meet the delightful owners at the show, and purchase some books from them (American Meadow Gardens, Fearless Color Gardens, Edible Estates, and, What's Wrong with my Plant?).

Book Passage

This shop is at the San Fran Farmer's Market at the Ferry Terminal. I didn't really browse, but I LOVED the name! Who can resist a good pun?

And Then, There's CITY LIGHTS

 

City Lights,THE bookstore of downtown San Francisco, was opened in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin.  It's a bookstore and publishing house, with poetry a major focus.  Ferlinghetti is a world-reknowned poet, and published Howl, by Allen Ginsberg, a ground-breaking event.  The shop still sells a variety of "Howl" related merchandise, but it is first, and foremost a cozy little bookshop for true intellectuals.  I loved their categories, too.

Everywhere, all over the shop, are signs to "Pull up a chair and read a while."  The third floor is entirely devoted to poetry, the foundation of the original shop, and books about the Beat poets. 

So, that was pretty much my trip.  I had to check a third bag on my way home.  A word of warning: once you pass your second checked bag, the fee is WAY more expensive.  But, upon arriving home and recovering enough to unpack my bags, this stash awaited me:

24 Fantabulous books just waiting for me to squeeze out a few spare moments to read them. 

GARDEN EXTRAVAGANZA at Pomegranate Books

Just a little teaser about one of our upcoming BIG EVENTS at Pomegranate Books!  Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 24th.  It's our

GARDEN EXTRAVAGANZA DAY!

and we can't wait!

Here are some of the fun events to anticipate (more details soon):

• Kids activties
• Garden storytime
• Garden workshops
• Book signings (Of COURSE!)
• Information about organic gardening
• Raffle of a GREAT BIG BASKET OF GARDEN GOODIES

All proceeds from the raffle, and any donations that day will go to the New Hanover County Arboretum's Ability Garden.  They do great work, helping people with challenges enjoy life through gardening.  Read more about them here.

If you'd like to donate something for the giant basket of garden goodies, please send us an email to pomegranatenc "at" gmail "dot" com, or give us a call (910-452-1107), or stop by the store!  The more cool stuff we have to give, the more tickets we'll sell, and the more money we'll raise for the Ability Garden!

Here's what we have for the Raffle Basket, so far:

From Glynne's Soaps:
Several bars of their delicious soap!

From aHa! Modern Living:

Herb & Floral Clippers     
Flower Garden Scrubber    
Elephant Watering Can    
Allsop Container Pot Pads    
Cow Pots    
Garden Plant Tags    
    Plant Variety: Botanical

Roost Wood Dibber Hand Tools    
Frog Salt & Pepper Shaker    
Popoutz Seed Feeder

From Author  Patricia Lanza, an autographed copy of "Lasagna Gardening"

From Authentic Haven Brand Manure Tea: a three-pack of manure tea bags (You brew this for your PLANTS, people!  ;)  )

From Shelton Herb Farm:  a 1 gallon Dwarf Pomegranate Tree

Raffle tickets to benefit the Ability Garden will go on sale at Pomegranate Books on April 1.

Get your Garden On!

Someday.
Eventually.
It will warm up in Wilmington.
At least,
that's what they say.

In the meantime. . .

We're re-stocking the GARDEN section!

To get everyone back in the mood, we're kicking off the

GREAT GARDEN BOOK GIVEAWAY

We have two fantastic, brand new, autographed books to give to TWO LUCKY READERS!  They are:

Proven Plants: Southern Gardens by Erica Glasener

 

This book is a gorgeous guide to selecting perfect plants for your southern garden.  If you garden here in Wilmington, and the surrounding area, you know that things just aren't the same as they were in your northern garden.  If you were born and raised here, then you might already know about all of the lovelies in this book.  Or, you might find some new favorites.  

If you don't win it, I can almost guarantee you're going to want to buy it.  The art direction is inventive, and elegant.  The whole book is full-color, and makes use of new photographs of the plants and historic illustrations.  It has a "modern yet classic" vibe.  The information is solid, and being a transplanted gardener with several seasons under my belt, I can say that I honestly wish that this comprehensive book was around when I first moved here five years ago. 

Grocery Gardening by Jean Ann Van Krevelen, Amanda Thomsen, Robin Ripley and Theresa O'Connor

 

Another brand-new, full color, gorgeous and practical gardening book that not only tells you how to grow your favorite culinary plants, but also how to cook with them.  I personally know the four ladies who wrote this book, and they are all fantastic gardeners and writers.  They're all on twitter, and they're a scream!  I think this will be one of my most-used books this summer once my veggie gardening kicks into high gear. 

How do I win?

Yeah, I know that's all you really want to know, now.  Here's what to do.  You have between today and Monday, March 15th to comment to this blog post with the reason why you think you need either the Proven Plants book or the Grocery Gardening book.

Submit a separate comment for each book.  Because, we'll pick two winners--one for each book from each group of entries.  In order for your entries to count, you MUST reference something about the book, and why you want need it. We'll draw the winners and let you know on the 15th!

Happy dreams of luscious gardens. . .