Book shopping in San Francisco
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Dog Eared Books
'Zines, remainders and graphic novels pack this place, but intriguing new stuff also gets its due in esoteric sections (especially Pirate literature) and trusty staff picks (of note lately: Miranda July's latest short story collection and Adverbs by Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snickett). Don't miss the hand-drawn obituaries to the likes of Susan Sontag, James Brown and Edward Said displayed in the front window.
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B
Kinokuniya Books & Stationery
Like warriors in a showdown, the bookstore, stationery and manga divisions of Kinokuniya compete for your attention. Only you can decide where your loyalties lie: with stunning photography books and Harajuku fashion mags upstairs, vampire comics downstairs, or the stationery department’s washi paper, supersmooth Sakura gel pens and pig notebooks with the motto ‘what lovely friends*they will bring happy.’
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C
Park Life
Is Park Life a design store, an art gallery or an indie publisher? All of the above, with limited-edition scores that include flashlight-shaped candles, Styrofoam coffee cups recast in sustainable ceramic, and Park Life’s own publications on graffiti artist Andrew Schoultz. The back gallery shows rising art stars such as Alexis McKenzie, whose surreal collages show animals spelling out the words ‘Never Be Sad.’
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D
SFMOMA Museum Store
Design fetishists may have to be pried away from the glass shelves and display cases, which brim with porcelain carafes shaped like logs, chirping bird pencil-clip holders and watches with a face to match Mario Botta’s black-and-white SFMOMA facade. Contemporary art books will keep aspiring collectors absorbed for hours, and kids will be entranced by William Wegman’s video of dogs spelling out the alphabet.
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E
Omnivore
Salivate over signed cookbooks by chef-legend Alice Waters, A16’s James Beard Rising Star Chef Nate Appelbaum, and signed copies of Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Check the in-store events calendar for standing-room-only events with star chefs, and don’t miss the collection of vintage cookbooks and such rarities as a Civil War–era recipe-book, written longhand.
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F
Isotope
The toilet seats signed by famous cartoonists over the front counter show just how seriously Isotope takes comics. Newbies tentatively flip through Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware in the graphic-novel section, while fanboys load up on Berkeley’s Adrian Tomine or the latest from SF’s Last Gasp Publishing and head upstairs to lounge with local cartoonists.
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G
Green Arcade
Everything you always wanted to know about foraging for mushrooms, composting with worms and running for office on an environmental platform, but were afraid to ask. This bookstore emphasizes helpful how-to books over eco-apocalypse treatises, so you’ll leave with a rosier outlook on how you can make the world a greener place.
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H
Giant Robot
The storefront of the uberhip Cali-Asian pop culture magazine understands exactly how you imagined life as a grown-up: stacks of comics, a never-ending supply of toys and stickers, and a wardrobe consisting entirely of T-shirts.
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City Lights Bookstore
Landmark bookseller, publisher and free-speech champion; trust excellent staff picks, browse Muckraking and Stolen Continents downstairs and find Nirvana upstairs in Poetry.
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Adobe Books
Every book you never knew you needed used and cheap, if you can find it in the obstacle course of sofas, cats, art installations and German philosophy.
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Bound Together Anarchist Book Collective
All-volunteer nonprofit bookstore stocked with conspiracy theory comics, alternative histories, organic farming manuals and other radical notions.
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Kayo Books
Pulp fiction, and proud of it: vintage noir novels, trashy romances, wild Westerns and an entire Bizarre Nonfiction section.
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Green Apple
Three-story mother lode of new releases, remaindered titles and used books; mags, music and used novels two doors down.
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