Written more than twenty years ago, most of the information contained within this guide is still highly usable. The Other Guide is more about what makes (and has made) this city hum, rock, and dance, than about tourist destination-spots. Yet it points the way to some of San Francisco's most interesting cracks and corners.

You'll learn about the Barbary Coast, The Patti Hearst saga, Haight Ashbury, the Beats, the earthquake, Levi Strauss,The Its It, progessive rock-radio, Rolling Stone Magazine. . . . all in bite-size, yet highly informative, segments.

One of my favorite sections is "50 Famous San Franciscans Favorite Restaurants"--an entertaining way to get to know all of the cities culinary offerings.

Hansen knows and loves the city and entertains us with his wry sense of humor and unique perspective. One only wonders, with all the 'tales from the city' that continue to write themselves, why he hasn't updated the book.

The Other Guide prepares you for San Francisco by introducing you to the mythology that built it: The Barbay Coast, Beat Generation, Rolling Stone magazine, Irish Coffee, and KSAN. Yet it doesn't read as a docu-book. Hansen's witty, friendly style makes it a good read whether or not you're planning a trip.

Having The Other Guide along is like having your favorite funky-uncle showing you the City.

I hope he decides to update it. Some of his favorite spots have been reincarnated. But the legends never die.

I received this pop-up book as a gift for my daughter's baptism. Now that she's 3, she can understand the story which is beautifully told and includes the traditional loving words with which Mary addressed Juan Diego. The pop-up art is extremely well done. We have been to the actual shrine in Mexico City and the pop-up cathedral is exactly like it. Many of our friends in Mexico City have inquired where they can buy this book. Fabulous gift for a Catholic family.

extra nice book, I'm very pleased as a pop-up collector-the '12' pages are referring to the double page-and makes for 6 fanastic pop-ups. Money well spent.

This book is a great resource for those who like to get outdoors on the San Francisco penninsula (particularly San Mateo county). I like to use it as a resource to find places to go when friends visit. It's a catalog of the often ignored foothills (and other areas) along the pennisula. Highly recommended. Check out Windy Hill (gorgeous panoramas) or any other part of the mid-pennisula open space district.

Excellent list of area trails

The People of San Francisco presents a unique view of the denizens of this lively community. In contrast to typical photo essays, the beautiful portraiture and well-written biographies give you a new look at the names and faces you hear about regularly as a resident. This book would be a great gift for "person who has everything" living in SF.

Elaine Badgley/Arnoux's uniquely personal and excellent mixed media portraits of San Francisco's mainstream citizens accompanied by the brief and sensitive biographies by Porche' and Elliot combine to make The People of San Francisco a most collectible artist's catalog. Every city needs a comparable collection of portrayals of their memorable greats and near-greats.

Reading Vollmann is like bumping into your girlfriend's mother as you exit the adult book store with a brown bag full of porn tucked under your arm. It's the shame of having secrets brought out into the light of day for others to gawk at, the shock of recognition, the pain that accomanpies knowledge. It's like being stared at....

The Rainbow Stories is a versatile demonstration of Vollmann's writing gifts. Thirteen stories, each based on a color of the rainbow (plus white and black, and the whole spectrum together), are each carefully tinged with the chosen color without laboring the point. A combination of journalistic observation, well-imaged interpretations, and visionary fiction, these stories range from ancient Babylon to modern San Francisco. The stories successfully demonstrate Vollmann's skill in describing the deepest horrors of mankind, the cold tremors of physical or psychological isolation, and the constant tugs of love and desire. Vollmann's gifts of description and his ability to detail the thoughts of the darkest and farthest reaches of humanity is thrilling and sometimes frightening.

"Selfishness and its faithful spouse, Stupidity, will be your gods. And they will be loved and respected as never a god was adored on earth."

These words introduce us to Marquis Fausto Rasero, the title character of this tour-de-force by Mexican author Francisco Rebolledo. They are Rasero's words, spoken for readers of the future.

When we meet Rasero in the 1740s, the 26-year-old Spanish noble is a quiet, contemplative man still coming to terms with a grotesque malady: every time he has sex, he sees visions of the future at the moment of orgasm. These visions are quite naturally terrifying: people cramming into metal tubes which travel underground, glass boxes within which small people move around while others watch and laugh... Above all, images of war: a giant metal bird dropping something out of the sky, after which thousands of Asians are incinerated in a blinding flash of light. Rasero is unsure how far into the future all this is happening; he only knows that the horrible visions of the year 1745 have been the worst of all.

In a move that speaks both of Madrid's stagnation and Paris' excellence at this point in history, the wealthy young noble leaves his native Málaga for a diplomatic post in Paris. He will spend his life there, making the acquaintance of the brightest minds of his time, men such as Diderot and Voltaire, Lavoisier and even Mozart, seeking to reconcile their beliefs with his secret knowledge. They are all working to bring about the Enlightenment they aspire to. Yet how can the Enlightenment these men hold so dear possibly be leading to the horrendous future Rasero witnesses in the arms of one lover after another?

This is an undervalued book that deserves to be more widely read. Its prose is thick and ornate, and you won't want to read this on an airplane full of tourists. Give it instead the time and silence it deserves. "Rasero" is not only an all-expenses-paid journey to the Paris of Louis XV, it is a thought-provoking examination of human nature using the borrowed voices of many great men, and some clever women as well. Some of its chapters, especially "Mariana" and "Robespierre" approach such perfection that they could have been developed into self-containing novels. In the end, Rasero - and Rebolledo - adopt a stance of uncompromising pessimism towards the future of humanity. Standing in Rasero's shoes, standing in Paris on an overcast day in 1794 watching as the Revolution devours its own children, including the enlightened young man he helped raise, you'll find his disgust is hard to argue with. This is a book that will keep you thinking about it long after you close it.

A delightful narrative and wonderful historical tour of the Enlightenment. Rebolledo has stormed in onto the Latinamerican literary scene and claimed his place next to the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Carlos Fuentes. Nicolas A. Vivas (nvivas@ix.netcom.com

This is the absoultely indispensible book for anyone interested in San Francisco and its wonderfully rich history. Whatever you seek, you're sure to find it here. Topics include the 1906 Earthquake, Accolades, Cable Cars, Bridges, Famous People, and so on. You can be sure that the information here is accurate and informative. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down. Written by the curator of the Museum of San Francisco History Gladys Hansen, who is also author of Denial of Disaster and San Francisco's Mayor's. This is a MUST SEE! END

If anyone loves and craves information about The City as much as I do, then this is the book for them. More than I bargained for

Don't miss the big-lipped action in this book! It is funny even if you don't live in San Francisco!

Don Asmussen is brilliant in his depiction of life in such a liberal town as San Francisco. This book is dearly appreciated by San Franciscans but appeals to all people with a sense of humor.

One day, my San Francisco 5th-grade class went to visit an exhibit about the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. While there, we met some survivors, old and ancient, but still alive with vivid memories of the disaster. To us, it had always been just something you read about. But, the survivors made the horror come alive, and suddenly we were quiet with awe and fright. This book gave me the same impression. Broken into a chronological pattern, we relive the days before, the days during, and the days after the conflagration. I couldn't put this book down! The book also told us something our beloved City always tried to hush up, and that was regarding the Bubonic Plague. The rats overran the City, due to broken sewer pipes and destruction, and with them they carried the fleas of the Plague. Astonishing. It can all happen again and reminds us how lucky Baghdad-By-The-Bay really was (only a few plague cases and no tsunami even though the Bay was lowered by four inches). You gotta get a hold of this book.

Gordon Thomas and Max Witts take the reader in detail, minute by minute into a living hell. They trace the damage done by the earthquake from its starting point out in the Pacific, ripping up onto the California coast and into the city by the bay. The earthquake broke the water and gas lines and because San Francisco was, and still is, built so close, a small fire spread. The military took over and some of the soldiers shot people without trial for looting and even not moving fast enough. And yet, the military looted items that they were suppose to guard, even the relief supplies. This book makes you feel like you are right in the middle of the action. The reader will feel like fighting the fire with the firemen, helping the common citizen trying to safe his home, or serching for a lost child for a frighten mother...not knowing if the child is dead or alive. One word comes to mind after reading this book...WOW!!!

This is my favorite and most cherished cookbook even though I am a Virginian and this is a decidedly Californian cookbook. I picked up by chance in a used bookstore and began making recipes from it and was soon quite impressed. After 5 years, I have yet to find a bad recipe in the book. Furthermore, the recipes are elegant and somewhat fancy while not being too out of the mainstream or too exotic -- or too difficult for that matter. Interestingly, many of the recipes in here have become "standards" (Khalhua pie, baked brie, Indonesian rice salad) with variations on them popping up in other cookbooks and on the web. These are the original, simple versions that first began to define California cooking. You'll enjoy this.

I have always looked for recipes that are fairly easy but that produce delicious results. This cookbook meets my criteria! Every recipe I have tried has been a success.