Comments on: Maybe I should grow hair to put flowers in...

Question: Maybe I should grow hair to put flowers in...

phrontist — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:44:43 -0800

So I get to go to San Francisco/Berkeley for a week over spring break (rather unexpectedly). If it lives up to even a fraction of the hype (it seems to good to be true!) I hope to move out there after college. I've seen the multitude of threads on what to do there, so I'm here to ask what books relating to San Francisco should I read over the next few months to enhance my enjoyment of the trip?

It can be pretty much anything...

I'd like to read at least one history of the city. Perhaps a tourist guide, if there is anything worthwhile. Perhaps fiction that would be illuminate some aspect of SF culture.

I'm considering graduate school in Berkeley in a few years, so that's fair game as well.

What will make me go... "oh wow, I've read about this!"

By: alexei

alexei — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:54:12 -0800

Read Imperial San Francisco and you'll know more history than most locals.

By: dirtylittlemonkey

dirtylittlemonkey — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:04:47 -0800

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, dated and utter popcorn of a read, but also Awesome!

By: Carol Anne

Carol Anne — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:07:09 -0800

Anything by Herb Caen.

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:09:04 -0800

Seconding Imperial San Francisco. Great for understanding how San Francisco became the City.

(Wow. I thought I was the only person who had read that book!)

For a look at her more recent history, I recommend City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco by Chester Hartman.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:23:38 -0800

A few topics to read about, some of them have good books and some do not.

- Emperor Norton, including the book Norton I, Emperor of the United States (cited in that article)
- Richard Brautigan - including The Abortion
- Feral Parrots in SFO
- Howl & Other Poems and also I Am Waiting by Ferlinghetti and other good stuff put out by City Lights

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:25:31 -0800

It's a great place, but my advice is to ignore the hype and figure the place out for yourself without those expectations. My overly idealistic image of the Bay area made my transition here far more difficult... there were aspects of the Bay area that ended up being nothing like I'd imagined. Every city has great and bad points, no place is ever perfect. That whole "too good to be true" thing can be a killer... because when you romanticize something, it may work against you in the real world. I very definitely romanticized SF. I'm making a good life here, though.

All of that said, it might be a great fit for you so you should try it out! Following your dreams is always a good plan, I say!

When I first moved here, people told me to read Tales of the City. I prefer old Dashiell Hammett though.

By: Packy_1962

Packy_1962 — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:57:00 -0800

Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:58:07 -0800

I'd also recommend a book on the 1906 earthquake such as The Earth Shock, the Sky Burned or one of many others. The 1906 quake still looms large here.

To add to Jessamyn's list of topics for exploration:

- Mission Dolores and/or Serra
- A book on San Francisco's Chinatown

I too had great visions of San Francisco before I moved here in 1992. And to be honest, it exceeded expectations. I immediately feel into a bunch of fantastic communities. Of course it was a slightly sleepier town back then and the dot-com boom was a distant rumble off on the horizon.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:34:38 -0800

Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson is a great companion book to The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. I would also recommend Cadillac Desert (not specifically about the Bay Area, but essential California History). If you read A Crack in the Edge of the World (Simon Winchester), you'll know more about earthquakes than most natives. Carter Beats the Devil is an agreeable little novel with quite a bit of local history tossed in. Roughing It is Mark Twain's autobiographical novel about coming out West, eventually to become a newspaper reporter in SF.

By: desjardins

desjardins — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:40:26 -0800

3rding Tales of the City. I don't recall the page count, but it's a really light, quick read.

I ran off to SF for several months when I was 19 and I was left with some of the most distinct memories of my life. Have fun.

By: serazin

serazin — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:42:53 -0800

Valencia, or The Ohlone Way.

By: Zed_Lopez

Zed_Lopez — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:30:19 -0800

A Guide to Mysterious San Francisco: Dr. Weirde's Weirde Tours

Berkeley, a City in History (City of Berkeley library website)

Berkeley in the '60's (movie, not book.)

Peter Beagle's The Folk of the Air is a fantasy novel set in an obviously fictionalized Berkeley, and I can't think right now of any fiction that's gotten the feel of Berkeley better.

By: jtajta

jtajta — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:16:57 -0800

Yes yes yes to Brautigan. And of course Didion's The White Album.

By: jasper411

jasper411 — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:02:37 -0800

Read the Maltese Falcon by Hammett and take a walking tour. Don't miss out on the plaque above the Stockton Street tunnel that marks the spot where Miles Archer was done in.

By: shifafa

shifafa — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 13:15:33 -0800

On Tales of the City -- I would highly recommend renting the DVD of a film made about ten years ago based on these books. It is excellent, funny as hell, and will give you a great intro to the quirky mindset that is SF. Starring Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis, among other supurb actors. Lots of allusions to Hitchcock, too.