East Bay Booksellers
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East Bay Booksellers
@ebbooksellers.bsky.social
4.6K followers 73 following 590 posts
We are a bookstore -- a good one, we think! -- selling new books -- good ones, we hope! -- in Oakland, California.
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ebbooksellers.bsky.social
New you can use.
A quick note about hours: the only day affected by the holiday is the holiday itself, Thursday. Whereupon we are closed, presumably either sleeping in, reading, spending time with family & friends, conspiring, reminiscing, brooding — or some combination thereof. Before and after all that, we are open our normal hours.
November 26, 2025 at 5:41 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
Just added a temporary holiday popup note to the website. Get ‘em while the gettin’s good!
Holiday Ordering Advice The earlier you order the better, no matter the book. If you’re ordering university press books, aim for around Dec. 5 — this will help us get you the best price (direct from the publisher). Everything else aim for no later than Dec. 15th. We have a ton of great things in-store always ... and when in doubt, gift cards are always great (& never expire).
November 22, 2025 at 10:46 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
As always, my favorite parts are the ones that fell to the cutting room floor.
When I turned fifty this past April, only one thing really seemed to change: I started reminiscing. Up to that point, I was somewhat allergic to nostalgia. I had little interest in photos of places I’d been, or in stories about things I had done. I would casually refer to the largest portion of my life as a collection of past lives, which were at that point mouldering in my memory. But something about suddenly (it only took half a century) being neither particularly old, nor certainly young sparked a desire … not to return or grasp onto what was, nor to grade or cast judgement or even to excavate it for some revelatory truth. No, I found myself simply (if it’s really so simple) wanting more consciously to bear witness to what was.
November 22, 2025 at 2:29 AM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
Been here so many times, but y’all, the Fox is so lovely, isn’t it?!
November 13, 2025 at 3:40 AM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
One of the perks of bookselling is you sometimes get invited to sell at very cool things.
Marquee of the Fox Theater in Oakland, announcing Patti Smith’s 50th anniversary of “Horses” show tonight.
November 13, 2025 at 1:57 AM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
“ Culture might seem a less consequential right than due process or free assembly. Its infringement makes less spectacular news than police action, protests, or Washington partisanship. In this way, the gross repeal of a right that took decades to build is at risk of going unreported. Lacking opportunities to encounter, explore, and create culture, social bonds weaken, engagement with the best of our communities fades, and economic growth slackens. Without culture, our capacities for self-government atrophy, our local communities wane, our intellectual and emotional lives wither and default to AI slop, and our paths to meaning and fulfillment close.”
October 26, 2025 at 1:23 AM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
Not having a particularly moderate position on the matter, I was happy to *moderate* a panel at the Heartland bookseller conference on small presses & bookstores. One of the recurring themes was scale. And people who know me, know how much I love conversations about that! The short version is this: it’s never been easier (insofar as any of this is ever easy) or more important for bookstores to champion small presses, not least because they so closely resembles our aims & ambitions … & fiscal challenges. Our fortunes, such as they are, are indelibly linked. It was so fun hearing from Mona at Other Press, Casey at LittlePuss, James at Leviathan, and even my nemesis (jk!) Javier at Exile in Bookville. At a time when there’s always some fresh new horror beginning & some beloved thing ending, art helps us imagine and create new ways to forward. (Samuel Beckett — 'You must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on.')
October 16, 2025 at 1:48 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
In support of Mark Bray, and in full disdain for fascism.
Photo of a stack of Mark Bray’s book ANTIFA, with one sign saying “Take one! Death to fascism, freedom to the people.” Frame of stack of books with a sign that reads, “these are FREE / take one, read it, share it! / Turning Point USA has put the author on a “list” resulting in death threats against Mark Bray, his family & his students. Consequently, he & his family have had to flee the country. If you are able to support the purchase of more copies so we can continue to give these away, please let us know!”
October 10, 2025 at 10:46 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
Drink an afternoon espresso, everybody, because we’re staying open late this Friday, 10/3! Here for your slightly later than normal book cravings until 9pm!
October 3, 2025 at 2:35 AM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
Ta-Nehisi Coates expresses here on Ezra Klein’s podcast a fundamental ethic that informs my sense even of what should be & will not be housed in a welcoming, truly curious bookstore. As ever, he gives us a lot to think about.
All I can go to is my role as a writer, and my role as a writer is to state things as clearly as I possibly can, to make them in such a way that they haunt, to state truths and to reinforce the animating notion of my politics — which is that all humanity is equal and is worthy of that. And I actually think all of the political and policy positions that I find myself in sympathy with are attempting to affect that in the real world. So, again, I’m putting aside your piece, but I’m just thinking about the moment we’re in. When I hear or see people who are honored and commemorated in such a way that they almost become a national religious figure, and then I see their content, and I see that their content is actively destructive to humanity, I have to draw a line there. I think what you try to do is — again, this is the difference. I don’t necessarily have the crystal ball to say that in this time I’m going to be able to convince a majority of people that, for instance — let’s just take the thing that’s hot right now: Trans folks are human beings and deserve humanity. Although I think most people know that you shouldn’t say what he said — like, that [expletive] is rude. It’s just rude to talk to people like that. And I think most people know that. So as I’m thinking my way through the question, I actually think that’s not a hard line to draw. I think not calling people out of their name, that’s actually a basic value that most people have. And I think people who think it’s not, who are pushing that, are actually themselves on the other side of the line.
September 28, 2025 at 7:25 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
Is wishing the Times would replace Bret Stephens with a better writer & thinker a free speech issue?
September 24, 2025 at 2:58 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
gah. My bluesky skills are waning. Now with Alt text.
Bookseller holiday book preview. Two legends of book selling, Brad Johnson from East Bay Booksellers and Stephen Sparks from Pt Reyes. Books joins us to talk about the most interesting books of the fall. November 5.
September 16, 2025 at 5:42 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
Ooops. Forgot the image.
September 16, 2025 at 5:28 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
*gouges out eyes*
August 27, 2025 at 3:35 AM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
Series of texts that read: Overheard : I wouldn’t like Brad !!! 🤣🤣🤣 I think they were looking at the staff recs Screencap of Nathan Fielder saying: “In reality I’m very fun, relaxed, and easy going.”
August 24, 2025 at 6:52 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
New newsletter is possibly in your email inbox (or spam … or deleted folder) now!

mailchi.mp/ebbookseller...
Over the years, I’ve increasingly de-emphasized trying to anticipate what will be popular. Yes, of course, we’ll have a big stack of the new Steph Curry book. And while I’ll be overjoyed to sell them all and then some, I’ve always thought it was books like Rosalyn Drexler’s To Smithereens or Lavinia Greenlaw’s Vast Extent where a purchase turns into a memory. In truth, filling a store’s shelves is the most fun part of a business that also requires them be emptied. We sold books for the first time at this year's San Francisco Art Book Fair. What an amazing event! I didn't have time to venture far or often beyond our six-foot table, but it was definitely one of the highlights of my bookselling year. It’s one of the great commercial-materialist dilemmas that in order for an industry to be economically sustainable, its product is often just one user away from its end. A sort of built-in obsolence, I think they call it. That books can be both art objects and practices throws a wrench in this cycle. I quite like that.
August 9, 2025 at 5:58 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
EBB: Experimenting with being magnanimous
Text message: “But I could be wrong. Been experimenting with being magnanimous.” Response: “I **NEED*** EBB merch that says ‘East Bay Booksellers: Experimenting with being magnanimous’l”
August 8, 2025 at 3:53 AM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
Forgot a picture!
August 7, 2025 at 10:01 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
We of course have great affection for all our books, but *my* love for the art sections is unabashedly hitting “playing favorite” heights.
August 7, 2025 at 9:47 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
At the close of this month our fundraising page will close. Some folks had some questions about the final update.

Upshot: (1) don’t cry for us. The fundraising insulates us for a bit from the bite of our diminished sales. Nevertheless, (2) we would love to see more of you swing by!
Some people have asked me for more details about what I meant in my GoFundMe update about sales at our present location being “persistently slower” than before our move. The gist of the questions being, “Should we be worried?” The quick answer is this: no, it’s mostly MY worry, not yours. I assume if you’re asking, you’re probably pretty invested in the space in a variety of ways already. Worrying about it right now shouldn’t be one more such way. But it is a reality. We expected and planned for decreased sales in a new location, but both the level of that decrease and its persistence have been challenges. And we’ll face them, as we always have. Which includes me being pretty honest (certainly when asked) about the situation. It goes against my instincts, and certainly what I’ve been told is “good business,” to be so frank. But our present situation and your role in such poses an interesting exception, I’d say.
July 24, 2025 at 3:13 AM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
(Fin)
I’m a firm believer, though, that curiosity is at the core of compassion. What’s more, I think it’s one of the drivers for the generosity shown to us the past year. It is also the motivation for the decisions we make (the good, the bad, and so many in-between!). Although our present moment seems impoverished of care and regard, we think a great bookstore uplifts stories that don’t simply rehearse what’s happened or is happening … but rather the creation of things that might yet be. This is the sort of bookstore we aim to be, wherever we find ourselves. So once again, thank you for supporting us in so many ways. We look forward to seeing you at the store,
July 17, 2025 at 2:48 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
(3/4)
If you’ve not yet visited, what can you expect? Most prominent, we’ve foregrounded our existing investment in the visual arts, and were even a vendor for the first time at last week’s San Francisco Art Book Fair. Where in our previous location we pushed for “expansive,” not least because of the space we had, here we’ve more definitively emphasized “adventurous” (in form, theme, etc). Smaller presses have always been central to our identity as a store, but are now arguably more central to our functioning as well. I’m making this all sound more dramatic than what it is probably. Ultimately the primary goal is to be welcoming. Because, by god, sometimes you just want something tried and true … so yes, we have that, too.
July 17, 2025 at 2:48 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
(2/4)
We don’t know how long we’ll be here. In fact, I’d go so far as to say we don’t even really think about it all that much. We have so little control of what happens with the reconstruction of the old location, let alone the pace at which that will happen, we are laser-focused right now on what we’re building at 6022 College Avenue (about 1/2 a mile up the street). If you’ve been by recently, I think (or at least hope) you know why we’re so excited! The only way I know how to be a bookseller is by always pushing the store to be … if not strictly speaking better, then different than it was. No matter whether it’s double or half the size from one day to the next. And while foot traffic is lighter than before, those who have come seem to be taking notice, to the point of voting us (for the first time in at least over a decade) Oakland Magazine’s “Best Bookstore.” Though I have no doubt the notoriety and drama of the fire placed no small role in the tally, I’m also not so shy as to think our response since reopening didn’t play a role as well.
July 17, 2025 at 2:48 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
We're nearing the one-year anniversary of our fire, so we thought it time officially to wind down the fundraising page.

Here's our final update: (1/4)
Hi Everybody – It’s a very cliché way to start one of these things, but here goes: I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since the fire. I’ll go one further and risk a little understatement by adding SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED! To that end, I thought I’d send one final update before closing down this fundraising page. Not to put too fine a point on it, thanks to your generosity we are decisively out of the immediate “crisis phase.” Mind you, we are very much in the thick of the broader, ongoing crisis unfolding daily around us all. The latter contextualizes, for better and worse, all that’s unfolded of late. (“They’ve taken their toll, these latter days,” says a song I think about often.) Maybe grief and generosity can yet be forms of resistance to despair. Your donations not only enabled us to be nimble enough to secure a new storefront much quicker than most people anticipated, it allowed us to keep all of our booksellers employed with full pay & benefits as we waited for the insurance process to play out. It afforded us invaluable options at the time as we considered our next steps, and continues to do so now as we weather persistently slower sales at our new location.
July 17, 2025 at 2:46 PM
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
The table is restocked (w/ yet more new stuff!) for what promises to be a busy Saturday at the SF Art Book Fair.
July 12, 2025 at 6:13 PM