A magical army of witches and wizards has invaded San Diego.
Those attending Comic-Con 2023 should be advised that a powerful group of witches and wizards has descended upon San Diego. They arrived this morning, most likely from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
I was able to capture these photos before they could flick their wands and Expelliarmus my camera.
Comic-Con attendees heading for the San Diego Convention Center were surprised to encounter several witches, wizards, and Dobby the house-elf.Professor Trelawney must have peered into her crystal ball and seen the Grim.Did Hagrid ditch his motorcycle and ride the San Diego Trolley instead? It’s really not all that different from the Hogwarts Express.Professor Sprout might have a friendly smile, but she’s a witch. Are deadly mandrakes nearby? Those two nearby Dumbledores seem unconcerned.There are two Mad-Eye Moody’s! Which one is the imposter? Is Polyjuice Potion in that flask?
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
There’s a cool free collectible in San Diego during Comic-Con 2023. Library cards featuring the Comic-Con logo beneath “Odi The Coyote: Defender of Books” will be available at all San Diego Public Library locations starting Thursday, July 20!
I asked a gentleman at the front desk of the Central Library if I could trade in my boring old library card from many years ago and get one of these collectible cards. Yes! While supplies last!
The Central Library, an easy walk from the San Diego Convention Center, also has a tiny exhibit near the main entrance during Comic-Con. Here’s one pic:
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Do you love the look, feel, and smell of words on paper, bound handsomely together for your own bookshelf?
I love to stumble upon dusty old books at a swap meet or rummage sale. Turn the pages and the author still speaks. The cover and interior artwork can be fantastic. One might find interesting notes or thoughts scribbled by past readers. And, if you’re lucky, there will be a beautiful bookplate inside.
What’s a bookplate? It’s a label readers affix inside their books to indicate ownership. They can also be used for book signings by authors.
The Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Harley & Bessie Knox Library currently has a display case full of handsome bookplates near its front entrance. They come from the San Diego Public Library’s Special Collections.
Here are a few examples:
The Mission Hills-Hillcrest Branch Library opened in 2019. Its grand opening was preceeded by one of the most wonderful events I’ve experienced in San Diego: the epic Book Pass!
Hundreds of neighbors transported hundreds of books from the old branch library to the newly built library. Every book passed from hand to hand about a mile down Washington Street. I took photographs of that incredible event, which you can see here!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Looking for a fun adventure this weekend? Do you love the great outdoors? Do you love birds?
The San Diego Bird Festival 2023 has kicked off at Marina Village Conference Center and continues through the weekend!
The annual event is presented by the San Diego Audubon Society. The public is invited to attend a variety of educational lectures at Marina Village and bird-watching activities around the city.
The cool thing is many of the activities on Saturday and Sunday are free, including outdoor birding adventures along the San Diego River and at Santee Lakes!
Never gone birding before? Don’t know much about it? That’s fine! Bird lovers are a friendly, knowledgeable bunch and very welcoming. I happened to meet a few of them this morning during my quiet walk through Marina Village about an hour before the day’s activities began in earnest.
The San Diego Bird Festival also has a bookstore with every sort of bird-related resource one could ever need. And for those who are curious, there are displays of binoculars and other gear. There’s also an auction that features some very cool collectible items!
Who are those bicyclists I photographed? They were just setting off for a ride along the San Diego River. I wonder how many birds they identified?
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
One of the display cases features books that were published in San Diego a century ago–in the 1920s and 1930s.
When I think of publishing in San Diego, the name Harcourt Brace Jovanovich immediately comes to mind. One of the world’s most important publishers made downtown San Diego their home for many years.
But have you heard of Torrey Pines Press, Hillcrest Publishing Company and the San Diego Printing Company? They and others were producing books in our city a century ago. Even Arrowhead Spring Water Distributors was part of the action!
The San Diego Library maintains a collection of books published or printed in San Diego. It’s called the Wilmer B. Shields Collection. It’s located inside the Marilyn and Gene Marx Special Collections Center on the Central Library’s 9th floor.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
A positively amazing mural was painted a year ago in North Park on the side of Verbatim Books. You have to see it to believe it!
The subject matter of this huge mural is books, of course. And famous authors, and classic characters, and timeless stories! (Not to mention dinosaurs, Balboa Park, and the North Park water tower!)
The artist who painted this fantastic 90-foot mural is Armando Hernandez (@elizarraras_art). I met him very briefly last year at the North Park Book Fair. I posted a photo of his Edgar Allan Poe with The Tell-Tale Heart here!
The mural at Verbatim Books is so brilliant and surprising and so alive with colorful detail, it’s like a colossal outdoor bookshelf demanding to be explored!
After filling your eyes, you’ll yearn to enter the secondhand and antiquarian bookstore!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can fit a whole lot of tiny books, each less than two inches tall, in a display case! That what you’ll notice when you visit the Hervey Family Rare Book Room at San Diego’s Central Library.
One handy thing about a tiny book is you can easily carry it in your pocket.
On the other hand, a tiny book’s content must be very slight, or with print so small you’ll need superhuman eyesight. In fact, some of these very tiny books have been sold with a magnifying glass!
Looking at these amazing little creations, I wonder if a microscope would actually be necessary. According to one sign, a record set for the smallest book is the 3/16 inch by 7/32 inch The Rose Garden of Omar Khayyam.
Many of these unique books are created by bibliophiles and printing enthusiasts. Tiny books are also in demand as collectibles.
I must admit, before the advent of smartphones, The Midget Webster Dictionary (with 18,000 words) in my upcoming photo might have been useful. And tiny Tom Thumb might enjoy that book concerning his history!
The Central Library in downtown San Diego is home to more than 500 miniature books, all part of the Wangenheim Rare Book Collection.
Many of these books must be witty. Because, you know, brevity is the soul of…
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Famous author Mark Twain and several literary friends visited San Diego today. They arrived at Heritage County Park for a very special event.
TwainFest 2022 welcomed some of the world’s most celebrated writers, delighting everyone who attended the outdoor festival. The free, family-friendly event is put on every year by Write Out Loud.
Mark Twain himself greeted visitors who wandered about…
When I asked him, Mark Twain wouldn’t clearly acknowledge that he was inspired by Squibob. Historians say he probably was.
But we can all agree Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic of American Literature. The esteemed author must’ve been pleased when TwainFest visitors cheerfully whitewashed a fence, much to the consternation of Aunt Polly.
Soon Twain was joined by three other notable writers. Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Emily Dickinson.
Yes, a fine summer day filled with imagination–another chapter in our own never-ending stories…
Out of the blue, a friendly Charles Dickens came strolling along through Heritage Park. The author confessed that one of his favorite works was A Christmas Carol.
In another area of the park, the Red Queen of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was playing croquet. I didn’t see Lewis Carroll, but he must’ve been nearby.
In the sunny Author’s Salon, Edgar Allan Poe was talking about his life–what he remembered of it.
Then Poe began his emotional recital of The Raven.
A few steps away, what were these smiling TwainFest visitors observing?
Tinker Bell and Peter Pan!
And that scoundrel, Captain Hook!
And what was going on over here?
Alice, the White Rabbit, the (Mad) Hatter and smiling guests had assembled for a quite unique tea party!
The Dormouse made a surprise appearance at the Mad Tea-Party as well!
And who is this fine fellow over here reading a story about gallant knights and noble acts of chivalry?
Don Quixote! (And his squire Sancho Panza.)
For his first big adventure, Don Quixote encountered a terrifying number of large fearsome giants who looked strangely like windmills…
Thank you, Mr. Twain, for the twinkle in your eye and your timeless humor.
And for bringing so many literary friends to San Diego!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Powerful witches and wizards have travelled from the world of Harry Potter to San Diego for Comic-Con 2022!
I saw the magical procession this morning and was astonished to discover so many J. K. Rowling characters present.
This awesome cosplay group has had their Comic-Con procession across from the San Diego Convention Center numerous times in the past. This year it appeared bigger and more amazing than ever!
How many characters do you recognize?
I see Snape and Dumbledore (two of them!) and McGonagall and Hagrid and Trelawney and Sprout and Tonks and Lupin and Fleur Delacour and Newt Scamander and Grindelwald and even a nascent Voldemort in the arms of that ratty Peter Pettigrew!
And Hermione! And Harry Potter himself!
And many others!
Enjoy some photos of this really great cosplay!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
An exhibit at San Diego’s Central Library, on display during 2022 Comic-Con, traces the history of dime novels, pulp fiction, comics and graphic novels.
The fascinating display can be enjoyed on the Central Library’s 9th floor, in the Rare Books room containing their Special Collections.
Some important and rare works are on view, and descriptions provide insight into the history of each popular medium.
If you happen to be passing by the Central Library with its lattice metal dome during Comic-Con, head up the elevator to the rooftop! And go through the door you see in the next photograph!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Cool San Diego Sights! 