Have you explored the Presidio? Once the most important military post on the West Coast, its 1,491 acres (5% of the city) sit beside the Bay of San Francisco, looking out to the Golden Gate Bridge and feeling completely apart from the urban rush. There are miles of hiking trails and bike routes through eucalyptus and cypress groves, picnic sites with incredible views of the Marin Headlands, and a beautiful beach—Baker Beach—that stretches along the western shore. A visitor’s center rents bikes and hosts family events.
Rangers with the National Park Service also lead free tours at Fort Point, the brick fortress built in the mid-19th century, tucked under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge. And the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary visitor center, which guides groups through more than 1,200 miles of open ocean surrounding the Farallon Islands off the Golden Gate (whale-watching tours, for example!), can suggest a whole lot more to do on the water.
A while ago, I brought up our bookclub’s biggest dilemma: what’s the best way to choose a book that everyone will want to read and discuss?
We tried using Survey Monkey list for a brief time, where everyone ranked their picks and an algorithm chose the winner. We were surprised to find that no one liked this as much as letting each month’s host choose the next month’s book (with input from everyone, of course). It seemed to ensure a wider range of book types—from page-turning thrillers and funny memoirs, to serious dramas and provocative nonfiction. Another theory is that by choosing books with online votes, we weren’t discussing the options and sharing the reasons why the book might be the right choice. It like going to a movie without having seen any previews.
In fact, one of you noted that the pitch is crucial: “I’ve been in my book club for more than 15 years! We meet every third Tuesday of the month. We only choose fiction books and the host is responsible for selecting about four books for us to check out and then we vote for one.”
But it recently came up that a lot of us would prefer to know what’s coming ahead—at least two or three titles at a time. So one poor friend of mine had the unlucky task of translating our wish-list (a giant excel spreadsheet of 36 titles!) back into Survey Monkey, from where we ranked our top ten. Then, from the shortened list of desirables we ranked our top three.
Of course, now, I want to read all 36! They all sounded so good. (In case anyone’s curious, I’ll share our results below.)
How do you choose what to read? Any thoughts on or additions to our ever-growing list?
For this month we read Hillbilly Elegy and—in lieu of a regular meet-up—will be going to hear him speak on campus at the Mondavi Center tomorrow night.
P.S. Okay, for the curious (and for helping my memory), here were the 36 books and the synopses the nominators shared from online…
Tackling the chore list is a moving target. I realize I do okay when it comes to daily maintenance, not so good when it comes to weekly deep cleaning. We’re lucky to have help twice a month in that department now, so you can understand if it tends to slip off my radar from time-to-time.
But I love the basket trick: At the end of the day, grab a basket and go through the house to pick up all of the misplaced items and then redistribute to rightful places. We’ve actually started using two or three baskets—one or two for the kids’ things (the majority) and one for ours. If they’re already asleep, Aron and I can opt to leave the baskets outside their doors. It just takes a few minutes to pick up the day’s clutter, with no running back and forth from room to room.
Of course, all the better if the baskets are pretty! Years ago, we brought home as many baskets as we could from Bali, but they’re not so easy to pack. Here are five favorite options you can order online:
