North Light bookstore bar opened January 11 at 4915 Telegraph Avenue in the "already thriving Temescal district" of Oakland, Calif., the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
"We wanted to create a space where the creative community felt like they had a home base," said Dan Stone, co-owner with Lee Smith. "People who want to go somewhere and read or write, or argue about whatever--kind of like what Caffe Trieste was like way back in the day, but the modern version of that."
Stone and Smith are showcasing books and vinyl works "recommended by their favorite writers, musicians and artists. They're opening the store with books curated by 16 people, each of whom has picked roughly 20 titles," the Chronicle wrote. Stone, who had previously made radio documentaries about books for the National Endowment for the Arts, received recommendations from numerous fiction writers, including Michael Ondaatje, Patti Smith, Michael Chabon, Greil Marcus, Samin Nosrat, Rebecca Solnit and George Saunders, the latter of whom titled his blurbs "Books to Turn a Dark Time Bright Again."
"I think the most exciting things in life happen when people get together, have a drink, and talk things over, preferably in sharp and elegant surroundings," Daniel Handler, another participating author and a friend of Stone's who co-founded the Silent Reading Party with him in 2016. "I look forward to North Light becoming that kind of necessary hub."
Stone said serendipity "was exactly what we had in mind when we were creating this. This is not a store you walk into saying, 'I have to find The Great Gatsby; I have a paper due.' You walk in and say, 'Oh, my god, Patti Smith picked her 20 favorite books--what are they? And you're going to find things in there you've never even heard of. So that idea of discovery is really what we were aiming for."
One wall of the bar's narrow, 700-square-foot front room is devoted to 18 bookshelves that reach the ceiling, the Chronicle wrote. Stone said he will add a rolling library ladder that will make books more accessible.
"I want my kids growing up in here," he added. "I'd love for them to get home from school, take the bus home, get off on Telegraph and just walk into North Light."