The American Library Association’s 2024 Annual Conference and Exhibition will be held June 27–July 2 in San Diego.
4
Number of crown-shaped chandeliers designed by author L. Frank Baum for the Hotel del Coronado, located on San Diego Bay. The hotel, where Baum frequently stayed as a guest, is said to have inspired the Emerald City in his famous 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
4,000
Age in years of the Babylonian clay tablets in the Hervey Family Rare Book Room at San Diego Public Library’s Central Library. The tablets are impressed with cuneiform, a writing system dating back to ancient Mesopotamia.
128
Number of years that Warwick’s, the country’s oldest continuously family-owned and -operated bookstore, has been open. Four generations have run the store since William T. Warwick opened it in Mankato, Minnesota, in 1896. The shop moved to San Diego’s La Jolla neighborhood in 1939.
7.5
Height in feet of the bronze Cat in the Hat sculpture outside Geisel Library, the main library of University of California San Diego (UCSD). The cat poses with longtime local and prolific author and cartoonist Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. UCSD holds the Dr. Seuss Collection, comprising more than 20,000 items related to Geisel’s work.
1513
Publication year of the oldest book in the rare book collection of the San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library. The book is an edition of ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle’s De Natura Animalium.
10,000
Number of vampire-themed comic books available in the J. Gordon Melton Vampire Collection, part of San Diego State University’s Comic Arts Collection. Melton, a renowned religious scholar with a passion for vampire lore, wrote 2021’s The Vampire Almanac.
8,000
Number of people who attended the 2023 San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. The annual event offers author talks, panel discussions, book vendors, and entertainment for all ages.
