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<\/a>Dear Diary,<\/p>\n\n
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I flew into Oakland on Thursday and drove to Berkeley via International Blvd, which I knew once upon a time as East 14th. While we moved much too much in my childhood to actually have a place I can call \u201chome,\u201d we lived several times not very far from the juncture of East 14th & 98th Avenues, so I thought that drive could be nostalgic. And in a vague sort of way it was. International goes through various slums, a largely black area, then a largely Hispanic area and finally a largely Asian, it seemed mostly Vietnamese area. At least the new name for the street is appropriate. <\/div>\n
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I spent too much time at my all time favorite bookstores, Moe\u2019s<\/a> and Black Oak<\/a>. If one is interested in high end used books there may be no better stores than these two. Once upon a time I worked at Moe\u2019s and worked with people who went on to form Black Oak. I try to visit both when I\u2019m in the Bay Area and get grumpy if I can\u2019t. Moe\u2019s has the absolutely largest selection of used and almost scholarly books touching upon East Asian religions I\u2019ve ever found. Black Oak\u2019s selection in this specific area isn\u2019t as impressive as Moe\u2019s, but they pay attention to pamphlet literature, which makes them very much worth the visit. I bought books.<\/div>\n
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