One more alternative dies

Rachel Pepper's Bernal Books, a tiny but splendid independent bookstore on Cortland St. in downtown Bernal Heights (a San Francisco neighborhood that is a bit of SF's version of Park Slope), is closing. I discovered this today as we were finishing up our Xmas shopping. Bernal Books is where I had my first-ever reading for my first-ever book. Rachel was a cheerful supporter of local authors, one of whom, Michelle Tea, worked there on and off for a long time. I always took care to order books from Rachel instead of Amazon.com, and it was always a pleasure to to by there and spend a few bucks.

While we were in there, people kept coming in to express their dismay at the closing. They kept saying how sorry they were and what a shame it was, which only seemed to make Rachel sound guilty as she explained why the place was closing -- because the lease is up and renewing it would be much more expensive, and because she was tired of simply scraping by year after year. So when it came time for Cris and I to make our final purchase, I just thanked her for being there all these years.