Same Page SF | Literary trivia, book design, and the start of our birding era
July 27 - August 2, 2026
Welcome back to Same Page SF, your home for all things local and literary!
I’m Christina, your friendly, well-informed, and unabashedly nerdy bookseller. Every Monday, I share author talks, book clubs, and new releases happening across our city.
It’s another great week to be a reader in San Francisco. Here’s what you’ll want to do if:
1) You’re ready for some friendly literary competition
Literary Pub Trivia at Gilman Brewing (Berkeley). Monday 7/27, 6-9pm, $25.
Hosted by Jeopardy! champ Amy Schneider, Litquake’s Literary Pub Trivia will test your knowledge of classic and contemporary books, plus local literary lore. Come solo or with a team to compete for prizes contributed by Bay Area bookstores, small presses, and libraries and other cultural institutions - not to mention bragging rights!
2) You’re secretly eager to age into birding
Keith Hansen: The Love, Joy, and Art of Birding at SFPL Main. Wednesday 7/29, 6-7:30pm, free.
My son’s third word was “dee” for “birdie,” and thanks to his passion for pigeons, I’ve become something of an expert in - or stalker of - our neighborhood flock. Now, even when I’m solo, I find myself pausing to admire. (Truly, is there a better application for “iridescence” than their bobbing necks?) My younger sister says I’m in my birding era, and while I’m pretty sure she doesn’t mean it as a compliment, I’m not mad.
Whether you’re a budding birder or a serious ornithophile, you’ll have plenty to learn from local author, artist, and birder Keith Hansen (Hansen’s Field Guide to the Birds of the Sierra Nevada and Birds of Point Reyes, both from Heyday Press).
3) Your ideal book club is also an art club
Works on Paper Book Club: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein at SFMOMA. Thursday 7/30, 6pm, free with RSVP.
The SFMOMA’s new-ish book club celebrates books that connect to the works and ideas in their galleries. For their second meeting, they’ll discuss Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas in conjunction with Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal. You don’t have to have finished the book to join; I haven’t read it since high school, but between this and Prudence Bussey-Chamberlain’s breakout debut Bone Horn, I’m clearly due for a reread.
4) You’re ready to write for a good cause
Thirst Draft at 826 Valencia. Thursday 7/30, 6-8:30pm, $10-20 suggested donation.
Thirst Draft, a community writing event in which everyone responds to the same prompt, normally happens the third Sunday of each month - but they’re making an exception to support 826 Valencia in this “part writer’s night, part open mic, all fundraiser.” Your suggested donation of $10-20 goes directly to the nonprofit, which helps under-resourced students develop their creative and expository writing skills - oh, and they also also masquerade as a pirate supply store.
5) You’re curious about commemorative book design (and friendship!)
Book Talk: Binding the Booker with Dominic Riley at San Francisco Center for the Book. Friday 7/31, 6-8pm, free.'
You’ve probably heard of the Booker Prize, but you may not know the Designer Bookbinders, a society that for 35 years has created unique commemorative bindings for each of the six shortlisted books. In 2022, binder Dominic Riley learned that not only was one of his favorite authors a finalist - Alan Garner, Treacle Walker - but they lived just ten miles from one another, turning “the usual solitary binding process … into a journey of collaboration and friendship.”
Excited about one of this week’s features? Invite a friend to join you (or a full crew, but let’s be real, we’re all introverts here).
MONDAY Journalist Jeanne Carstensen on A Greek Tragedy: One Day, a Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis, a finalist for this year’s Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Pen/Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, via City Lights Zoom | LPL Book Club on Ashley Poston’s A Novel Love Story at The Love Potion Library | Read in Nature Silent Book Club with the SFPL at Golden Gate Park | Babes Who Book at Sour Cherry Comics
TUESDAY Emeline Atwood on A Real Animal - just longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize - at Green Apple Books on the Park | Catherine Cho on The Devoted, “a promising fiction debut for readers who appreciate Godfather-like relational storytelling” (Library Journal starred review), at Booksmith | Scott Ferson on How the Democrats Lost America: Making Sense of the 2024 Election and the Future of American Politics at Manny’s | Flash Fiction Panel with Sabina Khan-Ibarra, Swetha Amit and Jesus Francisco Sierra at SFPL Main | Wesleyan University Press Showcase via City Lights Zoom | Workers Voices Storytelling/Voces de los Trabajadores at Medicine for Nightmares
WEDNESDAY Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer on On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear at Manny’s | William Archila on Canícula/Dog Days, a bilingual selection from his first two books of poetry, at Booksmith | Rashad Robinson on From Presence to Power: How to Take On the Fights That Matter and Win at the Commonwealth Club | Writing Club at Black Bird
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