What do Mecca, Golden Days, and The Sellout have in common, aside from being essential California reads? (Spoiler: It’s the Chavez Ravine.) Thanks to Bibliotrek, an interactive database that uses artificial intelligence, we can now see how they intersect on a map—along with other selections from Alta Journal’s Issue 31 cover package, 25 Books That Define California.
Steve Coast has brought that list to life with his work on Bibliotrek.
“I’ve worked in tech and maps for much of my career, and in the past I’ve had long periods of reading more books than is healthy,” says Coast. “I’ve worked in bookshops, too, so the intersection of books, tech, and maps is natural to me.”
Using AI, Bibliotrek tracks text references to other books, locations, and author relationships within novels—uncovering deeper layers within the books you know and love.
Specifically, in the Alta Journal: 25 Books That Define California map, the tool reveals the hidden threads between our 25 chosen titles.
“The Alta Journal article about the 25 books that define California served as a touchstone to bring these ideas together, and it’s a fantastic starting point to explore both California and the books themselves,” says Coast.
Want to trace the linkage between your favorite novel and the place it’s set in? Curious about how one author’s vision of Sacramento or San Diego stacks up against another’s? Visit Bibliotrek’s 25 Books That Define California map and explore these connections yourself.
“Everything happens somewhere,” says Coast. “Place is a way to navigate something familiar like a book in a new way. It brings a new dimension to an existing work, something you may feel familiar with. It’s a new facet to make the old seem new again.”•
Elizabeth Casillas is an assistant editor at Alta Journal. A graduate of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, she has previously written for the Poly Post and Enspire Magazine.
