Cover to Cover Booksellers in Noe Valley isn’t just a great independent bookstore; they’re intimately linked to the affluent Noe Valley community. When the store almost closed in 2003, the neighborhood banded together to save it, with loans from dozens of neighbors and pledges from hundreds of customers to buy at least one hardback book a month.

Now the store returns the favor with community events, including this Thursday, Dec. 6, when from 4 to 9 pm fifteen percent of all purchases will be given to local James Lick Middle School. (And yes, that’s the same Lick as in San Jose’s Lick Observatory. He was also the original owner of the building that became Golden Gate Park’s Conservatory of Flowers. His biography makes him out to have been quite a character.)

And if you can’t make it to the bookstore but still want to support the school, come to El Rio on Saturday from 5 to 8 pm for a benefit concert “by one of the Bay Area’s most booked Latin bands around, led by Miquel Govea.”