»rub-a-dobe

I suppose that Adobe Books in the Mission needs a shtick to attract some attention.

We will be celebrating the opening of this enormous art installation. For one amazing week in November, Adobe Book Shop in San Francisco has agreed to allow it's estimated 20,000 books to be be reclassified by color. Shifting from red to orange to yellow to green, the books will follow the color spectrum continuously, changing Adobe from a neighborhood bookshop into a magical library—but only for one week.

Adobe Bookshop in San Francisco’s Mission District, and all of its contents, will be transformed. It will take a crew of 20 people pulling an all - nighter fueled by caffeine and pizza all following a master organizational plan - but come Saturday morning it will be like a place that would only exist in a dream.

Adobe galls me. The staff's general lackadaisickal attitude towards their books -- piled on the floor, with bugs all over them -- is one thing, but the overall shabbiiness of the shop speaks to a general disrespect of books, of people, and of the admittedly-dirty neighbourhood. Brian, who ran the late, lamented Chelsea Books, stepped away from the disintegrating Adobe more than a decade ago.