You can not throw a New Yorker magazine in San Francisco without hitting a writer. This city smog destination might be most famous for steep hills and sourdough, but step inside one of its many independent bookstores and cafes and you’ll find most novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, bloggers, even in the neighborhood more literary Brooklyn.

It is this wealth of local talent that inspired the first festival Litquake 1999. That and beer. After a long evening at Edinburgh Castle, SF a water well which hosted a series of readings by authors with success, the future of Litquake co-founder of Jane Ganahl and Jack Boulware concluded that putting in a literary festival in San Francisco could not be that difficult, could it?

It was not hard at all. The two persuaded 20 local writers to participate, we reserve the band shell in Golden Gate Park for an afternoon and got their only sponsor, the San Francisco Tour Examiner, to expel from $ 300 for a sound system. To his amazement, 300 people showed up.

It was so easy, they decided to do it again. And again.

This year, 12 Litquake, the event will run for nine days and 848 authors have read in places as diverse as Sausalito houseboats, Mission District dive bars, a police station, an alley, and a cheese shop as well as regular bookstores and theaters. Best of all, most of these events are free or close to it. This means that if you are a lover of the written word, 7 to 15 October is the best time to be in San Francisco Tours. One caveat: With 165 events in nine days, there’s bound to be more than one at a time that you wish to attend. To navigate Litquake daily offerings, you will need local council.