About Borderlands

We love books. They’re our friends. Good books and bad books, 1st editions and beat up paperbacks. We love how they smell, how they feel, and the way they sound when you open them (A customer once said that he liked how they tasted. . . we watch him very carefully when he’s in the store).

We read voraciously. We read over dinner and we read in the bath. We lend books and half the time we don’t get them back. We understand that the only people who steal your books are your friends. That’s OK, after all, we’ve stolen some of their books.

We like people who read. They’re interesting and we share the same friends. We understand what we owe to people who read. We owe them our time and our attention. We owe them fair prices and an honest attempt to find the book they’re looking for (regardless of whether it is on our shelves or someone else’s).

We run a book store. We keep it clean and organized because we like it that way and because both the books and the customers deserve it. We have lots of seating because you should be comfortable while you browse. We stay open late and wish we could stay open later. If you come in five minutes before closing time we won’t close until you’re ready to leave.

We only sell Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery and Horror. We would love to sell all kinds of books but we only have so much room. If we sold all kinds of books we could only be a good bookstore. By limiting ourselves we can be a great bookstore. And, if we do our job right, perhaps we can be your bookstore.

Come visit us. We’d like to meet you.

Borderlands Books is located on lively & historic Haight Street between Cole and Shrader Streets, in the heart of San Francisco’s famous Haight-Ashbury District.

Our Mission Statement

  1. To create a retail and mail order business that provides a comprehensive selection of good quality and reasonably priced books and other items of interest for readers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery and Horror Fiction.
  2. The staff and management of the store will be helpful, knowledgeable and willing to go any reasonable distance to assist our customers, whatever their needs may be.
  3. In addition to being a viable business, this store will be a social and professional center for readers, writers, publishers, reviewers, artists and other individuals with a strong interest in the fields of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Macabre, and Mystery Fiction.
  4. The business locations, both physical and virtual, will be as attractive, clean and well organized as it is possible for the management and staff to make them.
  5. The business will actively support both the professional and artistic community of which it is part and the neighborhood in which it is located. This support will primarily be in the form of goods, services and volunteer efforts.