Best Bay Area Bookstore

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but given the lack of response I thought I would just get out there and say that I always love just going into a Borders or Barnes and Noble, getting a coffee and spending an afternoon catching up on current events. It's not the same, but it's definitely one of my favorite introverted pasttimes.

City Lights Book store on Columbus (also claims to be the bookstore for the BEAT generation is great. It's a little confined. There's also The Beat on Broadway if that helps. They have a nice mix. OHHH, and there's Russian Hill Book store on Polk St. I really like that place too. I'm with @StephSF though, I like going to B&N for the Starbucks latte and hunkering down with my computer or a book.

I've always liked the decor and feel of Barnes and Noble, though I have a hard time putting chain stores down as best bookstores for a location. That said, if you like the whole cafe/bookstore experience you might like Cody's Books in Berkeley, I think they now have a cafe area, though it doesn't matter since you could just cross the street to Cafe Mediteraneo.

You're right, City Lights has great history but I've never actually managed to find a book to read there--a touch unorganized.

Anybody know if Kepler's Books is still around in Palo Alto--that is where Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead fame met his first wife. I think she worked there and he used to hang out there.

I know, I feel like a traitor for putting a chain down, but there is something to be thread for familiarity and the ability to drink coffee while reading magazines that don't belong to you in a store filled with knowledge. This is probably one of those few threads where it is socially acceptable to do that.

BTW, does anyone else feel overwhelmed in bookstores? I sometimes find myself feeling kind of like I am in Vegas - stimulus overload in the form of knowledge rather than bright lights and neon signs.

@StephSF: Totally overwhelmed! I just keep on thinking of all the books I could read, should read, am tempted to read, only kinda read, and I get paralyzed. Either that or I get really enthusiastic and get like five books then wake up the next day and say, "Why did I think I would want to read a 700 pager on the history of Mongolia after World War II?"

I love killing time in bookstores though--even if it is only to imagine what I would read if I had world enought and time.

I am the same way, although I use it as an imagination station for travel - where I would travel to, how long I would go for, what mountains to climb, what trails to hike, what beaches to dive...etc. etc. (insert preferred travel verbs here).

It's not the same kind of overwhelming feeling that I get in a casino though - more like a positive sense of what is possible. But I digress and still stand by the fact that my favorites are the major chains, although I will have to check out Cody's Books in Berkeley next time I am there.