This is somewhat short notice - I hop on an airplane early tomorrow - but I was wondering if anyone knew of a classics-friendly used bookstore on some ignored corner of San Francisco?
I’m not expecting SF to be a secret hotbed of dead language studies, but I thought I’d ask. I’ll have a few days to wander around. Apart from seeing a friend’s band, and dim-sum, I have no fixed plans.
If it is Stromkern, say hi to Ned for me. 
What ever do you want with a bookstore.
Well, you know, it is SF. I can slake my book-lust away from the prying eyes of neighbors.
“Well, you know, it is SF. I can slake my […]-lust away from the prying eyes of neighbors.” ~Annis
Try the bookstore of Erasmus B. Itchy on Polk and Uranus. 
(I’m one step ahead of you, dear Episcopus.)
The best source of new books in Classics is Borders, which you can access outside of SF. Perhaps UC Berkeley has a good selection of new Classics books - I haven’t had a chance to get a good look there yet since I generally don’t have a lot of spare time whenever I’m in Berkeley.
The SF State University Bookstore has a meager selection of Classics books. Last time I was there, about the only books they sold which were not availible at Borders were the Willcock editions of Homer, Cunliffe, and a really cheap edition of Crito in Greek.
For used classics books, the two most useful stores are Green Apple Books and Black Oak Books 2. Green Apple Books, on Clement and 6th Ave (directly availible by bus lines 44, 2, and near bus line 38), has plenty of Loebs, however most of their classics stuff focuses on Classics in Translation. Still, sometimes they have goodies, such as the copy of Aristophanes’ Clouds in Greek which has a full vocabulary in the back. Be sure to look in the Classics AND the Reference/Languages section, since some books on Ancient Greek tend to get shelved in the latter.
Black Oak Books 2, on Irving and 7th Ave (directly availible by N-Judah, near bus lines 71, 6, 66, 44, 43) has more advanced books on Classics, such as that in-depth commentary on Pindar’s Pythian Odes. It is the best source for non-Loeb books in Classical Greek. Since many of them are out of print, many of them are quite expensive. You can also check out the other Black Oak book stores - the original Black Oak bookstore is in Berkeley, and Black Oak Books 3 is in North Beach.
EDIT : Another place which sometimes has Classics goodies is Aarvark Books, on Church Street, near Market Street. It is availible by the J Church and F Market lines. Anyway, it’s the cheapest used books store in San Francisco, so it’s worth a look for almost anything. There are a lot of other used books stores in the area - while they tend not to have nothing in Classics, some of them have excellent selections of, say, books in French, or other topics.
Thanks for the tips, τρίσγαμμι. Unfortunately, I spent all my time in SF in the company of either Unix programmers or Industrial bands. Bookshop owners do not keep the same hours as these people.
For the amusement of the textkittens, a photo of what I do when not thinking about greek: menace people with chopsticks while eating dim sum.
While wandering to restaurants, museums and music venues I did stop in at any of the bookstores that were on the way for a quick Classics Guerilla Book Action. This was fruitless. Also, I realize SF has a reputation to uphold, but is there a law requiring every bookstore to have an entire section devoted to anarcho-syndicalism? This isn’t Spain… how many of them can there be?
I don’t want to burst your bubble William, your gesture might be menacing but your facial expression does not inspire fear.
It is hard to frown when eating tasty radish-cake.
evening Bardo,
no idea what you’re referring to there.
A., re: your picture, i would, as you no doubt should, be proud. how did your meeting with Raya go?
Proud?! Of what, the reflectivity of my forehead?
how did your meeting with Raya go?
That was great fun, though, out of politeness to others with us, we only talked about Pindar once.
You mean bookstores in other places don’t have that section? Weird 
I think a lot of people flirt with the idea, buy the books, never read them, and then let their sisters-in-law sell them to used book stores. And some people do read them, and talk about it over dinner, and leave the books on the street. Very lucrative for the bookstores.
I remember a few years back they had an (unauthorized) anarchist parade down Haight Street, pretty much blocking the street. The owner of the used bookstore there complained that the parade was ruining their buisness, the police weren’t doing anything about it, and that if they don’t want Haight Street (or anywhere else) to be taken over by the corporations, they should not hurt the small independent buisnesses. Of course, I heard all this since I was in the bookstore looking for something to buy, so customer traffic was not completely dried up, but I used legs instead of wheels to get there.
re: menace people with chopsticks while eating dim sum: I had to be given the smelling salts. That didn’t work, so had to go for some drops of brandy.
re: anarcho-syndicalists: Do lumberyards in SF run specials on barricade materials?
I don’t know. It was just a general anarchist parade, not anarcho-syndicalists specifically. I suppose if somebody was willing to go to court for manslaughter, they could have driven though the paraders walking in the street. Come to think of it, I wonder what they did about all the bus lines which go through Haight street. Maybe the drivers spontaneously decided to take the alternate routes used when Haight street is officially blocked off. But some of the buses on Haight street are electric and couldn’t have deviated from the offical route without having prepared in advance … hmmm, that’s a good question.
Speaking of anarchists and Haight Street, I just remembered that there is a bookstore devoted to anarchism. I think it’s on Haight. Maybe it’s somewhere else, but I think it’s on Haight. I am not terribly interested in anarchist books, so I don’t know too much about it. If it is on Haight, I don’t think it hurt for buisness while the anarchists paraded.
Anyway, the anarchists, while there are more of them in San Francisco than many other cities, make up only a small minority of the population.
For the amusement of the textkittens, a photo of what I do when not thinking about greek: menace people with chopsticks while eating dim sum.
I see that you’re a index and middle finger chopstick holder. I suppose I am too, but ever since my father has amended my “un-asian” grip, I use the middle and ring finger more often… In some ways it feels more dextrous, but the awkwardness hasn’t gone away completely after all these years of proper asian gripping…
“… hmmm, that’s a good question.” ~Glo
So good, you didn’t even read it! Are you having violent thoughts lately, Glo?
Anarchists parading? Anarchists don’t parade! Those must have been commie provocateurs!
Fine, call it a riot if you want, though I don’t think they were destroying property or anything. Quite frankly, I was not paying much attention to them at the time.
