My name is Barbara Keenan and as a result of my life-long love affair with books, I have owned a bookstore in San Leandro for 25 years. Though I do not live in town, San Leandro has been a home to me and my family.

 My boys grew up working in the store and many of my employees have been young people that went to San Leandro High School. It is a safe place for them to hang out, read books and play games. For some, it was their first job and they always come back to tell me how they are doing now.

On Friday nights and Sunday afternoons, A World of Books becomes a stage for role-playing game tournaments, like Magic and Pokemon. My son, Lee, is the grand master of the tournaments and we have had as many as 100 young people playing at tables set up outside the bookstore. Be sure to check out the Games and Tournaments's page to find out what’s hot in games and cards right now, as well as other game news.

The store has always been a great place to meet local writers and we have celebrity sightings from time-to-time.  Now that we have an official home on the internet, I will be posting a calendar of upcoming events. Look for it in the next month or so, as well as special reviews on the Barbara's Picks page. For now we are happy to have a place on the internet for our old friends to visit and perhaps reach out to meet some new ones. I hope you will have some patience with us as the website grows – A World of Books has been around for a while, but we are still exploring that other world of the Internet.