{"id":10152,"date":"2019-09-12T15:16:14","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T22:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=10152"},"modified":"2019-09-29T15:24:39","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T22:24:39","slug":"books-as-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2019\/09\/12\/books-as-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Books As Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/roadtrippers.com\/magazine\/the-art-of-traditional-bookmaking-lives-on-at-the-book-club-of-california-a-quiet-paradise-for-bibliophiles\/?utm_source=Essential+California&amp;utm_campaign=9308737a95-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12_COPY_01&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_6e35f7f85b-9308737a95-76843229\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"from Roadtrippers (opens in a new tab)\">from Roadtrippers<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The art of traditional bookmaking lives on at the Book Club of California, a quiet paradise for bibliophiles<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>San Francisco&#8217;s century-old book club has more than 10,000 rare and letterpress-printed volumes on display<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/roadtrippers.com\/magazine\/author\/molly-fosco\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Molly Fosco<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rt-homepage.roadtrippers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/book-club-california-3-library-1080x810.jpg\" alt=\"The Albert Sperisen Library at the Book Club of California\" class=\"wp-image-24226\"\/><figcaption>The Albert Sperisen Library at the Book Club of California. | Photo: Molly Fosco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When I pick up a new book, I try to decide if the story is worth reading. Are the characters relatable? Is the plot exciting? Typically, I\u2019m not checking whether the book was printed on a letterpress or if the end papers are hand-tipped. At the Book Club of California, however, it\u2019s a very different story.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No longer the exclusive members-only club it once was, the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/maps.roadtrippers.com\/us\/san-francisco-ca\/attractions\/book-club-of-california?utm_source=Magazine&amp;utm_medium=Internal&amp;utm_campaign=Native&amp;utm_content=Book-Club-California\" target=\"_blank\">Book Club of California<\/a>&nbsp;is a non-profit open to the public. It supports the art of bookmaking, typography, design, and literature about California history and the American West. Located in San Francisco\u2019s bustling Union Square neighborhood, the club is housed inside the World Affairs Council Center, a place where people gather to discuss global issues.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rather unassuming building facade is easy to miss, but walking through the entrance of the wooden double doors on the fifth floor transports visitors back to early 20th-century San Francisco.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Books as art<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Thousands of books in glass-doored cabinets line the walls. Victorian-era couches, lamps, and dark wood tables decorate the room, and there\u2019s even a working 19th-century Columbian printing press. A swanky bar that looks like it belongs on the\u00a0<em>Titanic<\/em>\u00a0sits in the corner. This isn\u2019t a coincidence\u2014the club was founded in 1912, the same year the ill-fated ship ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Luckily, the Book Club of California has fared much better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[ <a href=\"https:\/\/roadtrippers.com\/magazine\/the-art-of-traditional-bookmaking-lives-on-at-the-book-club-of-california-a-quiet-paradise-for-bibliophiles\/?utm_source=Essential+California&amp;utm_campaign=9308737a95-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12_COPY_01&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_6e35f7f85b-9308737a95-76843229\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"click to continue reading at Roadtrippers (opens in a new tab)\">click to continue reading at Roadtrippers<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from Roadtrippers The art of traditional bookmaking lives on at the Book Club of California, a quiet paradise for bibliophiles San Francisco&#8217;s century-old book club has more than 10,000 rare and letterpress-printed volumes on display By\u00a0Molly Fosco When I pick up a new book, I try to decide if the story is worth reading. Are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}