Berkshire Books

Information may not be reliable

November is National Novel Writing Month! The time of year when thousands of enthusiastic writers pick up their pencils, their laptops, their typewriters or some other weird writing implement of their choice and pound out a novel in 30 days. Or rather, a hastily scribbled but hopefully salvageable first draft of a novel. Participants begin writing November 1 and by midnight, November 30 they have a 175-page, or 50,000-word novel. That’s just One thousand, six hundred and sixty-seven words a day!
Berkshire Books co-owner Cheryl will be participating again for the sixth year in a row. A true glutton for punishment.
Well be hosting NaNoWriMo write-ins at
Berkshire Books Every Sunday afternoon in November

(Note: Normally we are closed Sundays, but will be open just for the write-ins. If you’re not participating in NaNoWriMo, come on in anyway!)

3480 Clayton Road, Concord
Call (925) 685-9999 if you have questions
(Yes, we have a place to plug in your laptop. No, we dont have WiFi)
Refreshments will be on hand
For more information on this crazy program, go to nanowrimo.org

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Or, they don’t make them like this anymore!

(For sale. Enquire within. #659. Pope, Alexander. The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope with Life. London: Gall & Inglis, [No date]. No Edition Stated. Gilt decorated cloth. Very Good/Sans DJ as issued. Gaudy Victorian decorated edition of Pope’s poetry. Terra cotta cover boards are beveled with gilt and color titles and embellishments. Inset illustration of a vase of flowers framed on front cover. Four steel engravings inside with most other pages decoratively bordered. All edges gilt. Some edge-wear to head and heel of spine and corner tips. Period ownership label on first paste-down. Internally, hinges just beginning to crack. Gilt and illustrations still bright and attractive. Overall a lovely example of the sort of over-the-top decoration the Victorians adored. $85.00.)

Posted in Pretty books | Tagged for sale, pretty books | Leave a comment

Attention, Shoppers! We’ve changed our store hours. The new hours are:
Monday through Saturday

Since you’re here, feast your squinties on this gem:

Rusty felt the sweat that had come to live on his spine trickle down like a small bug. He was free of the gang. He’d split with them once and for all.
Now he was no longer Prez of the Cougars. He’d be able to walk past the corner and not have the bluecoat stare at him like he was hot or something.
The streets were silent. It was too quiet. He came around the corner, and there they were, waiting.
Because: “NOBODY BUGS OUT ON THE COUGARS!”
Rumble. Harlan Ellison. NY: Pyramid Books, 1958. Paperback original, 1st. VG. Signed. $200.

The latest Sherlock Holmes movie has got people talking about the Great Detective and his faithful Watson. But personally I think the movie was lacking a little something. Action? No, no, it had enough of that. Evil villain? Check. Mysterious woman? Check. Oh, I know what was missing!
Tarzan! Of course!

[Click for larger image]
Someone could make a movie out of this book and make a BILLION DOLLARS!!
Either that or it would go straight to DVD and show on SyFy every other late night Thursday for the rest of eternity.
I haven’t read the book — are you serious? But the back cover gives an adequate synopsis:

Yeah, you might feel like a monkey after reading this book.
The front cover blurb poses a small mystery. If Philip Jose Farmer is the “true” author of Venus on the Half Shell, who is the fake author? What is Venus on the Half Shell?
The mystery solved:

You’re welcome!
Peerless Peer: $30; Venus on the Half Shell: $20.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged books by their covers | Leave a comment

Everybody sings “Auld Lang Syne” on New Year’s Eve, right? Or rather, everybody sings the first verse and the chorus. Well, if you plan to sing the song, here’s the whole entire words to the poem written (or copied down, or collected) by Robert Burns in 1788. Impress your friends!
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,

And surely ye’ll be your pint stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet,

And pou’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
Sin’ auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d

And there’s a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie waught,

That might be a tongue-twister (not to mention a head-scratcher), so here’s a half-modernized “translated” version:

for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

and surely Ill buy mine!
And we’ll take a cup o kindness yet,

from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared

And give us a hand o thine!
And well take a right good-will draught,

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged holiday | Leave a comment

NaNoWriMo is Baaaack! November Weekly Write-Ins
Posted on October 28, 2009 by BB

NationalNovelWritingMonth is a month-long challenge to write a wild, messy, eye-gougingly crummy but salvageable first draft of a novel. Participants begin writing November 1 and by midnight, November 30 they have a 175-page, or 50,000-word novel. No, really. One thousand, six hundred and sixty-seven words a day, that’s not too many!
Berkshire Books co-owner Cheryl will be participating again — for the fourth fifth year in a row.
But wait! There’s more!
There’s Write-Ins!
We’ll be having regular NaNoWriMo write-ins at

(Drop in any time, or do a seven-hour keyboard-pounding marathon)
That’s right here at Berkshire Books

(Yes, we have a place to plug in your laptop. No, we don’t have WiFi)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged nanowrimo | Leave a comment

Reminder – Book Signing for Concord Naval Weapon Station History
Posted on July 23, 2009 by BB

Just a reminder that John Keibel will be at Berkshire Books this Saturday, July 25 to sign copies of the book and talk about his research on the history of the Naval Weapons Station.. The talk begins at 2:00 p.m.

Behind the Barbed Wire:
History of the Naval Weapons Station Concord
By John A. Keibel

Using government facts and figures, first-hand accounts and oral history, author John Keibel takes the reader “behind the barbed wire” to explore the history of the former naval base, from its beginning in 1942 through its roles during five wars to its closure in 2005. Illustrated with photographs and 15 maps.
For more information about the book, including sample pages and photographs, visit John’s website Behind the Barbed Wire.

Two new local history books and a local guide for kid’s activities!
First, a new book on Concord in Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series:

The book traces Concord’s history from the Spanish land-grant days to the Port Chicago explosion during World War II. Most of the photographs come from the collection of the Concord Historical Society. A must-have for anyone interested in Old Concord!

John will be at Berkshire Books on Saturday, July 25 to sign copies of the book and talk about his research on the history of the Naval Weapons Station.

Toddling Around Mount Diablo
By Brenna Shafizadeh and Sarah Becker

This is a great guidebook about fun stuff do in and around Mount Diablo for families with toddlers. The authors teamed up with the Mount Diablo Mother’s club to find local favorites for the “five and under” crowd, including playgrounds, reading groups, museums, local farms and family-friendly restaurants, with day trips to further afield to Berkeley, San Francisco and other cities.
For more information on the book (including a PDF version of the shorter first edition) and about the Mount Diablo Mother’s Club, check their website Toddling Around Mount Diablo.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged local history | Leave a comment

Strange Bedfellows, or at least Shelfbuddies
Posted on February 10, 2009 by BB

I went by Half Price Books today and went immediately to the hardcover Science Fiction section, as I usually do. They’d moved it!
They didn’t move it far, but they switched it with hardcover Romance. Then they moved the Horror section, so that now the cases move in a natural fashion from Romance to Horror [insert joke here]. This is not the way these three genres were shelved in the past! But now that Paranormal Romances are so hot, well…
So, the shelves started out sparkly and pink, and changed to (what else?) sparkly and dark, then to just plain dark. Then the Science Fiction section started, and it got a bit brighter. But not much.
Aaaaand, speaking of brightly-colored science ficion covers, how ’bout this one?

Love that red suit!
Yep, it’s for sale: only eight bucks!