Buy the Book

We're in a real book! Well, us and a few dozen of our neighbors.

The bookstore next door to us collaborated with a local writer/photographer couple to write, photograph, and publish a book all about Pacific Grove architecture. And we made the cut! It focuses mostly on Victorian and Craftsman styles, but also includes some interesting modern examples, a few churches, and a couple of notable commercial buildings. Overall, it's a nice look at the variety of architectural styles that our small town enjoys.

Every building gets a two-page spread, with a full-color photo on one side and a few paragraphs of history, lore, or funny stories on the facing page. Rebecca Riddell wrote all of the text and her husband Craig took all the photos.

There was a nice launch party last week, and everyone whose house was mentioned got invited to attend. We got to meet some new neighbors and swap old-house stories.

In a nod to privacy, the book doesn't include any interior shots, nor does it give out specific street addresses or mention the the names of current owners. Kathy and I have decided to turn this into a game. We recognize virtually all of the buildings in the book, but we can't always place the address. So our goal now is to make it into a kind of architectural scavenger hunt, locating each house on our walks and writing down its address on the relevant page of the book. Let's see how long it takes us to collect the whole set!

The first printing of Pacific Grove Architecture & Anecdotes was 1000 copies, and the publishers were kind enough to give an autographed copy to each homeowner included in the book. We got ours at the launch party, and we bought a few additional copies for family. If you're interested in buying your own, you can get it directly from the bookstore/publisher at www.BookWorksPG.com or by calling 831-372-2242.

Now if we see other people out on the sidewalk holding the book and writing in the margins, we'll know what they're doing.