Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco

Gary Kamiya is an excellent writer, so the reading is easy and the subject matter compelling, i already love SF so i enjoyed his take on many places i already know, and then many that i did not.
Most people don't need help loving SF but this will deepen your appreciation. If you don't know the City at all or not well, this is a great guide. He walked pretty much the full 49 square miles so he knows it intimately.
Very enjoyable read

I thought that it was very well written and contained a lot of interesting information. I did think that he spent a little too much time on some areas and missed some very interesting ones altogether though.

I live in Massachusetts and have been to San Francisco a few times. My son lives there and when I saw this book I thought he might enjoy it. Before sending it out, I figured I'd read a couple of chapters. I ended up finishing the book.

The author is a wanderer and ponderer. His 49 chapters cover some well-known locations but most would be unknown to outsiders. Despite the hype in the store's book description, I found the tone of the book to be very quiet and personal. Each location comes with a story as well as some well-researched historical background.

I no longer have the book to refer to but a few things stand out in my mind. First are the descriptions of the early development of the city. I can almost feel what it must have been like to climb the hills and sand dunes in those times. Then there are the sections on WWII and the AIDS period which were very memorable. Although this book is a celebration of San Francisco, I think anyone reading it would learn to better appreciate their particular surroundings. If you take the time to stop and really look, there should be a lot of special places to enjoy in any city.

From the first page, this book made me homesick for San Francisco. Of special interest were the history of some of the places about which Mr. Kamiya writes. I'm not sure that a reader, unfamiliar with The City would completely understand the emotional connection that the author's descriptions create, This is not a travel guide or a tour book. This is a tone poem to a great city. The book does for San Francisco what Woody Allen's Manhattan did for New York. .

Kamiya knows San Francisco. He grew up in the Bay area. He has worked for the San Francisco Chronicle, Examiner, and Salon.com. He is the current editor of San Francisco Magazine. His title borrows from Hokusai's wood block prints "36 views of Mt Fuji." By walking every quadrant of the City, Kamiya presents us with widely divergent views of the same city. He succeeds in fusing past with present.

I have been to SF numerous times and have read copiously about it. Still this book opened up numerous new vistas for me. Kumiya is a walker, as am I, because walking is the only way to get to know a city. I think of the great flaneur tradition in Paris. His explorations of the city range in time from its founding to a a parallell text of the great earthquake, juxtaposed with his experiences with the most recent. His comments range from geology to politics.

If you never have been to SF this will enrich your visit by taking you behind and beyond the obvious tourist attractions. If you think you know everything about the city, this book will certainly disabuse you of that notion. This is not a guidebook; there are no restaurants or shopping tips. This book instead aims at, and achieves, a deeper understanding of the city, and its incredible diversity.

I loved it.

Thoroughly enjoyed it, and found the author's insights very perceptive. He has clearly done his research & knows the facts of San Francisco's early days & weaves those details into the story--for example the cost of living in SF at various times has ALWAYS been expensive, and Gary Kamiya gives examples. He covers such obvious places as the Ferry Building, along with newer treasures such as mosaic tiled stairways--always with an eye for the beauty and charm of each particular place. His narration about the old Hunters Point Shipyard brings the place to life for those of us who were not visiting there in its hey-day. It's not a guidebook for tourists, but rather a personal stroll around the City by someone who knows its various corners intimately.

Beautifully written by a resident who is passionate about his city. It is very informative and ,for me, the most enjoyable book that I have possibly ever read for pleasure. As a book club member most of my time is reading other types of books. I fell in love with San Francisco when the Navy sent my husband to Mare Island Shipyard. We visited the city a fair amount as time permitted, but upon reading this book I realize that we did not even scratch the surface. The book presented endless surprises about the City's history, challenges and changes through the years. The author's descriptive narrative was able to portray every area of the city to me as if I were present there.

This is a wonderful book and clearly an effort of love. As a native Californian but a non-native San Franciscan, a high point in my life was the four years I lived in the City by the Bay. Gary Kamiya's ode to his favorite city was the perfect book for me to pick up on a recent trip back to the Bay Area. It is a series of vignettes of different points in the city, discussed in terms of history, geology, sociology. and literary perspective. It reflects the author's broad range of interests from science to the humanities. I thoroughly enjoyed it and if you have any affinity for this magical city and its rich history, you will likely enjoy it too. Highly recommended!

Bay Area native and former cab driver Gary Kamiya speaks early on about 'doing the knowledge,' or the driver's requirement of knowing a city inside and out. He's taken a lifetime of living and curiosity and turned it into a book whose prose is as big and sparkling as the city itself. But this isn't the San Francisco most people (including the locals) know; it's a micro and macro analysis, highly affectionate and jawdroppingly examined in terms of history (including prehistory), geology and sociology—and it's never boring. You will never think about the City by the Bay the same way again. Five stars.

This is a fascinating physical, social and political history of San Francisco framed in a series of 49 "walks" around different areas of the city. The author did actually walk many miles through these neighborhoods, but instead of a tourist guide, he gives us stories and reminiscences, bringing the city to life. I found the book so captivating that I bought a copy to give to someone who has lived in San Francisco for many years. I think he'll learn a lot.

A great book about San Francisco. Gary Kamiya knows the city and shares his substantial knowledge in a clear and entertaining manner. He frequently shifts from historical accounts to contemporary observations which really enriches the reading experience. Mr. Kamiya has included a comprehensive bibliography. Really impressive and inspired work...a true pleasure.

Agree with a previous reviewer, the first person tone of this book makes it an EXTREMELY PERSONAL memoir. It is truly like reading the diary of a complete stranger (and a rather uninteresting one at that). That may turn on a few people but I found it extremely off-putting. It seems as if every sentence contains the word "I" or "my". What I wanted to read were thoughtful essays about my favorite San Francisco neighborhoods. What I got was a lot of self-involved stream of consciousness, with the city taking a decorative back seat to the navel-gazing.

I wish Herb Caen would have written this book.

Quite possibly the worst book upon which I have ever laid my eyes. A friend of mine concurred.

Kamiya is incredibly verbose to the point of torture. I'm sure he goes to bed with a dusty old thesaurus at his side.

I thought this book would be great since I live in San Francisco, but alas, no. He actually had the nerve to use the same word in a sentence twice. And it was one of those words that would just upset a person.

Pretentious and boring.

From a friend: "Someone gave me a new book recently: Cool Gray City of Love. It's a series of essays about San Francisco. I was floating along, enjoying
it, until I came to the chapter on Glen Canyon. The author turns into
a complete shill for the NAP. He interviews Kirra Swenerton and Dylan
Hayes, and calls opponents of NAP self-righterous Nimbys - and then
quotes them as saying there's no opposition in Glen Canyon!"

For those who consider Urban Planning, San Francisco is a City that works. Ask how a monolithic automobile industry could destroy the city of Detroit? Ask why a single industry like Insurance makes Hartford Connecticut succeed? San Francisco is a 7 square mile city; it would take about 5 hours to walk from one end to the other; it is an eminently walkable city. Oh, yeah there is that great song by what's his name.

Kamiya writes about the various parts of the city, the geography of the city, the ethnic make-up of the city. Despite being a city of sand, there is base of solid granite beneath all that sand: Pillow basalt, radiolarian chert, graywacke--called the Franciscan Complex. (page 169) Events that took place millions of years ago, thousands of miles distant--created the foundation for the city of San Francisco.

Kamiya has written a love story about the city that is fun and enlightening to read.