Haunts for lit lovers

STORY BY ANGELA HILL PHOTOS BY KARL MONDON/STAFF

California’s literary gems aren’t always found under cover. Some lie beyond the book, like the trove of literature-inspired artwork in a library in San Jose. Or the byzantine adventures in one of the world’s best bookstores – maybe the last? – in Los Angeles. You can take a crawl through San Francisco’s Mission District to imbibe inspiration –from books as well as booze. Or go where people take literature literally, with an intricate re-creation of 221B Baker St. in a Gold Country shop.

If you love a good read but still yearn for more, here are some book-eriffic activities for the worms in all of us:

A perch on the seventh floor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library gives this sagacious owl statue the proverbial bird’s-eye view of the philosophy section.

Art Among The Stacks

The amazing works of conceptual artist Mel Chin are scattered needle-in-haystack-style throughout the nine stories of book stacks in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose’s main public library which also serves San Jose State University. Nearly three dozen sculptural “insertions” are all over the place, both in style and location. And finding them is a fun, free, erudite expedition.

There’s a herd of branded leather chairs on the second floor, a tiny ornate door at the base of an elevator cab and a secret-passageway bookcase that’s totally Scooby-Doo. On one wall, an opening reveals the “Owl of Minerva” — a reference to an observation by 19th-century idealist philosopher

The Tectonic Tables installation, above, overlooks a panoramic view of San Jose. It is the work of artist Mel Chin, as is the funky bicycle table, left, and a detail from it, right.

Lit Gems

Treasure Nguyen, a docent at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, is reflected in a mirror set up in the library’s selfhelp section.

A hidden bookcase, below, swings open on the 1st floor.

G.W.F. Hegel — poised to take flight over the philosophy and psychology sections.

This permanent collection of 33 works, titled “Recolecciones,” has been here since the building opened in 2003 “to surprise you and add a sense of mystery and wonder,” according to Chin. Pick up a map at the front desk in the ground-floor central atrium, then go explore.

Details: Open daily at 150 E. San Fernando St., San Jose. Find details on the library’s art docent tours held on Thursdays at www.sjlibrary.org.

At Home With Holmes

Head upstairs at the Hein & Company bookstore in the small Gold Country town of Jackson, and you’ll enter a scene straight from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is Baker Street West, a “tip of the deerstalker” homage to the greatest consulting detective who ever fictionally lived, with a lovingly detailed re-creation of Sherlock secret passageways, revolving bookcases and more.

Two uber-Sherlock fans – bookstore co-owner Linda Hein and her friend Beth Barnard – dreamed up this novel idea and gradually brought it to life in 2013. They also host special events, including murder-mystery dinners, theatrical productions and meetings of a Sherlockian literary society.

Elementary details: It’s instructive to note that “Baker Street” isn’t the actual address. It’s actually 204 Main St. in Jackson. Open daily; docent tours are available; www.bakerstreetwest.com.

Endangered Species

So a bookie named Josh Spencer – not the gambling kind of bookie, but the book-obsessed kind – laid a bet on the enduring appeal of hard-copy literature, opening an independent bookstore in downtown Los Angeles in 2005. He named it – ironically, he hopes – The Last Bookstore, and it has since swelled into a 22,000-square-foot destination as the mother of all bookstores, often appearing on lists of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. There’s even a documentary about the place.

The store houses more than 250,000 new and used books on two floors, including an Arts & Rare Book Annex, tens of thousands of vinyl records and graphic novels and a huge mezzanine level that encompasses the Labyrinth Above the Last Bookstore, the Gather Yarn Shop and the Spring Arts Collective gallery shops. There’s also a raised stage where readings and book signings take place.

Details: Open daily at 453 S. Spring St., in the Spring Arts Tower, Los Angeles; www.lastbookstorela.com.

Bound To Love Books

Merely entering San Francisco’s Book Club of California seems like the setup for a novel. You step with trepidation into a small, bland lobby just off Union Square and take an even blander elevator to the fifth floor, wondering all the while if you’re in the right place or about to interrupt someone’s tax audit. And then, in the magical equivalent of passing through the back of a wardrobe, you emerge in a gracious, bookwalled room of leather chairs, a fireplace, a bar and a hushed realm of gentility.

This is no Oprah book club. Rather, the century-old nonprofit is a haven for bibliophiles, where they can research and honor the history of books and the book arts – from the printing process, illustrations and typography to bindings and paper quality –through the club’s collections of about 12,000 rare books and ephemera.

The club may be one of San Francisco’s best-kept secrets to passersby, but it’s well-known as a hub in the vibrant Bay Area bookarts community. Though membership-based, it holds literary events and public programs year-round, and you’re also welcome to stop in during business hours to take a peek.

Details: Public programs are typically held on Monday evenings from 5 to 7 p.m. at 312 Sutter St., San Francisco; www. bccbooks.org.

Bookish Bacchanal

One night each year in October, when it’s rarely dark and stormy in the City by the Bay, thousands of book and beverage lovers worm their way through San Francisco’s Mission district, sipping sweet libations and savoring meaty conceptions.

This is Lit Crawl. It’s the perfect epilogue – a nightcap, if you will – to the annual 10-day Litquake festival. Since Lit Crawl began in 2004, it has become the world’s biggest free pop-up literary event, a massive pub crawl with more than 500 authors simultaneously giving readings or holding discussions in all manner of venues – from bookstores, cafes and galleries to tattoo parlors, pet stores and laundromats. And yes, pubs.

Localized editions of the Lit Crawl have now sprung up all over the world, in Austin, Seattle, New York City, Iowa City, Los Angeles, Portland, London and Helsinki. But the original is right here.

Details: This year’s San Francisco Crawl will weave through the Mission from 5 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 19; www.litquake.org.

YOU AND SAMUEL CLEMENS – THE TWAIN SHALL MEET

The Last Bookstore is a temple of books, with labyrinthine bookshelf layouts, a literary tunnel and a vault that holds horror and true-crime tomes.

In the Bancroft Library on the UC Berkeley campus, you’ll find the Mark Twain Papers archive, housing the single largest collection of original documents by and about Samuel Langhorne Clemens, the impressively mustached author you know as Mark Twain. There are thousands of letters by him and his family, 50 of his notebooks and hundreds of manuscripts, as well as related working notes, typescripts and proofs, first editions, books from his own library, scrapbooks, photographs and other important Twain-related documents. They were bequeathed to the University of California by his daughter, Clara Clemens Samossoud, in 1962. This amazing collection is amazingly open to the public, though not quite as accessible as your city library down the street. Visitors must make an appointment to view approved materials.

Details: The Mark Twain Papers reading room is located in The Bancroft Library, room 475, at UC Berkeley; www.lib.berkeley.edu/ libraries/bancroft-library/marktwain-papers.

JACK LONDON