Berkeley Author To Discuss New Book At Mechanics' Institute Tonight

Coming to the Mechanics' Institute at 6 p.m. Thursday is Berkeley author, illustrator and raconteur extraordinaire L. John Harris, who's recently published "My Little Plague Journal" (Villa Books) is, believe it or not, a highly entertaining account of how he passed the calamitous couple of years just behind us.

Part sheer whimsy and part collection of some sobering historical facts, his 127-page journal is also jam-packed with literary references and idiosyncratic graphic images and photos that cast the events of the pandemic in a highly unique perspective.

One of the first is his panel of six colorful cartoons that trace the gradual decay, over a year's time, of a healthy potato that devolves into a spiky, shrinkled sphere that resembles the coronavirus. Harris is also a publisher himself, a confirmed foodie who cofounded the Gilroy Garlic Festival and the curator of a collection of classical guitars that he donated to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

We get the feeling he is a cosmopolitan connoisseur of many things. Admission to his talk is $5-$10 on a sliding scale. The event takes place on the fourth-floor meeting room of the library at 57 Post St. in San Francisco.

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