Vagabonding a Bay Area bestseller

Today’s Travel Quote of the Day is "Miracles" by Walt Whitman, and it would seem to be a small miracle that Vagabonding currently holds the #9 slot in this week’s San Francisco Chronicle Paperback Bestseller List. Summarized as "Practical advice and poetic musings on long-term traveling," Vagabonding shares space with books by authors such as Richard Russo, Michael Cunningham, Eric Schlosser, and Michael Chabon (in addition to Virginia Woolf, who is seeing newfound popularity as a result of The Hours by Cunningham). No doubt I can attribute the strong showing to a couple of great book events not long ago in Berkeley and Marin County. Here’s a quick rundown of the paperback top ten in the Bay Area:

1. THE HOURS, by Michael Cunningham
2. BEL CANTO, by Ann Patchett
3. BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS, by Sijie Dai
4. MRS. DALLOWAY, by Virginia Woolf
5. THE NO. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY, by Alexander McCall Smith
6. EMPIRE FALLS, by Richard Russo
7. FAST FOOD NATION, by Eric Schlosser
8. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, by Sue Monk Kidd
9. VAGABONDING, by Rolf Potts
10. THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY, by Michael Chabon