EAT, DRINK, TALK (AND SWAP) BOOKS

An Evening at the Booksmith

Friday, November 20 at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets required: $25 at Brown Paper Tickets and in the store

  "The Booksmith’s upcoming Book Swap is a great way to meet smart, creative, literary minded people." - SF Examiner

We’ll bring the food and wine, you bring the book—a book that intrigued or excited you, something you couldn’t put down or that you savored over months—a book you want to talk about. The evening’s activities will be full of smart fun and good cheer, culminating in a swap.

At the Booksmith, we believe that bookstores are more than a place to buy books. They are a meeting place for people who love books—all kinds—a place to bring people of like interests together. This event was created for book-lovers by book-lovers. Wine and appetizers – from Café Reverie and Say Cheese -- are included in the ticket price.

November's book swap theme is Books We’ve Read More Than Once.

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DAVID THOMSON

The Moment of Psycho

Thursday, December 3 at 7:30 p.m.

  It was made like a television movie, and completed in less than three months. It killed off its star in forty minutes. There was no happy ending. And it offered the most violent scene to date in American film, punctuated by shrieking strings that seared the national consciousness. Nothing like Psycho had existed before; the movie industry—even America itself—would never be the same. In The Moment of Psycho, film critic David Thomson situates Psycho in Alfred Hitchcock’s career, recreating the mood and time when the seminal film erupted onto film screens worldwide. Thomson shows that Psycho was not just a sensation in film: it altered the very nature of our desires. Sex, violence, and horror took on new life. Psycho, all of a sudden, represented all America wanted from a film—and, as Thomson brilliantly demonstrates, still does.

English-American writer David Thomson is the author of many books on film, including “Have You Seen...?” A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films, which the New York Times called, “passionate, illuminating, rich, and eccentric”; and the massively influential Biographical Dictionary of Film called “the best book on the movies ever written in English” (The New Republic). He lives in San Francisco with his family.

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JOANNA MACY and ANITA BARROWS

A Year with Rilke: Daily Readings from the Best of Rainer Maria Rilke

Tuesday, December 8 at 7:30 p.m.

  One of the most widely read modern poets, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) has influenced generations of writers and served as a trusted guide for countless others on the importance of looking within to find peace in a hectic world. From The Book of Hours to his classic Letters to a Young Poet, his writings have only gained more relevance with time, and his observations are amazingly prescient.

Now, for the first time, A Year with Rilke provides a reading from Rilke for every day of the year. From his luminous poetry, to his piercing prose, and even his intimate letters and journals, editors Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows provide new translations in a collection that reveals the depth and breadth of Rilke’s acclaimed work.

Including the last lines found in Rilke’s journal before he died as well as the epitaph he requested be carved on his gravestone, A Year with Rilke is an intimate window on the work on an unparalleled writer, providing daily meditations on themes such as impermanence, the beauty of creation, the voice of God, and the importance of solitude.

This evening is an opportunity to hear a selection of these daily readings, and to celebrate a lovely book that will make a wonderful gift this holiday season.

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