.Best Bookstore for Really Smart People

Even after the tragic loss of Telegraph institution Cody’s, Berkeley is
still home to a handful of amazing indie bookstores, among them
University Press Books. Despite hard economic times and fierce
competition from Internet sites, University Press Books continues to
thrive under its original owners, husband-wife team Bill and Karen
McClung, who founded the bookstore in 1974. With the slogan “Ten
Thousand Minds on Fire” stretching across the top of the front door,
the shop primarily attracts a crowd of professors, grad students, and
otherwise nerdy folk, and carries titles from 140 scholarly and
academic presses. The store also organizes occasional author events,
such as book signings. The staff, an eccentric group of bibliophiles
with an encyclopedic knowledge of esoteric publishers, is especially
friendly and helpful, and truly loves what they do.