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4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
This has become my new go-to book for San Francisco insider knowledge with essays that capture the essence of the City.
Very enjoyable, quirky history of San Francisco with beautifully-illustrated maps throughout. A great gift for San Francisco natives, or people new to the city.
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
I don't think I would have known about this if Annie Yu hadn't made a blog post about the maps project.
According to the receipt that fell out of this book, I bought it on July 26, 2013 at City Lights. It was three days after my 32nd birthday and presumably a Friday because every Friday for about a year I would visit my therapist in her office across Columbus from City Lights. Every Friday I pedaled my bike the five or six miles along the Bay from my office in Bayview, watching the city transform from neglected future redevelopment hotspot in the shadow of the dismantled skeleton of Candlestick to the postindustrial docks of the Dogpatch, skirting the edge of Mission Bay (so shiny and threatening at the time of this book's writing) before taking the former freeway of the Embarcadero up until my left turn into North Beach, my last few pedalstrokes in low gear uphill until I locked my bike outside of the Hustler Club and walked up the stairs to find some measure of healing.
I have loved maps for a long time and I love how Solnit and her compatriots took me on a journey through time and space in that city I loved so much and left for another love. Even opening it took me on my own journey through the city, the map of discoveries external and internal, the cartography of connection.
I have loved maps for a long time and I love how Solnit and her compatriots took me on a journey through time and space in that city I loved so much and left for another love. Even opening it took me on my own journey through the city, the map of discoveries external and internal, the cartography of connection.
This is so amazing I can barely believe it's real. Such luck! I wish it were twice as long.
I'd really like to give this book 3.5 stars. Goodreads feature request? My expectations were so high for this book (hey Rebecca Solnit), but some of the essays were a little too preachy and nostalgic for the "golden years" for me. The essay about the Mission was my favourite, and the last one about San Francisco treasures made me excited to go exploring. I just wish I'd felt that way more consistently through the book.
I love the conceit of this book in theory. However, due to the fact that the book needed lots of space for the maps, the essays seem interminable. They are also uneven, some compelling and others just blah. My recommendation would be to read one essay, go read something else, then come back to it.