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Acorn Books - CLOSED
Category: Shopping Books, Mags, Music and Video Bookstores Bookstores [Edit]
1436 Polk Street(between California St & Pine St)
San Francisco, CA 94109
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
(415) 563-1736
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
18 reviews for Acorn Books
Review Highlights
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"...down and worship the hallowed sanctity of the first edition." In 3 reviews -
"You'll be sure to find something you will eventually want..." In 3 reviews -
"...and good light, sliding ladders and nooks and crannies." In 4 reviews
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18 reviews in English
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Review from Sheri N.
San Francisco, CA
4/7/2007
support your local non chain book store!
so they may not all be nice... the corporate MAN doesn't pay their wages to be nice... lucky if they get paid a decent living.. they work for a place and passion they love: books, words, and the art of tantalizing people with intangible scenarios of words... but u still gotta love 'em. -
Review from Kristina R.
San Francisco, CA
8/13/2006
I found a rare copy of "archy and mehitabel"...first edition! It was priced about right, and the book itself was in very good condition. They also had a super cool Pogo book, but I passed since it cost more than my rent. (No, not really...maybe more than my student loan payment, though.)
They also had quite a few old periodicals at the time of my visit, so I looked through them for the hour or so my hubby was slobbering over car and motorcycle books.
The people who worked there were nice, but not at all attentive. But they still get five stars, just for existing.
SAVE THE INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES! -
Review from Laura M.
San Francisco, CA
8/8/2006
If I was to create my perfect bookstore it would be exactly like Acorn. Tall, narrow aisles jammed with books, old fashioned library ladders, a nice range of popular to obscure materials, and lots of energy up at the front yet peace and quiet among the books. If I had to use just one word to describe the atmosphere it would be cozy.
Book selection is really great. I can go over the same shelf 3 or 4 times and still find something new and interesting; this is probably why all of my visits are 3 hours long. The different shelf labels are helpful, from your standard Fiction to more interesting labels like Bullfighting and Arctic Exploration. There's a whole section of limited editions, which I think is pretty cool. The glass cases at the front make great eye candy.
I'm really going to miss this place, it's my Fortress of Solitude. The plan right now is to buy as many of their books as possible and recreate Acorn Books in my apartment. -
Review from Herbert S.
Davis, CA
1/5/2006
It's closing sometime in June. In the meantime, its 40% off
Each and every wall is covered in books, and not just the walls within reach, but up to maybe 15 feet. This place must have the most books per square foot of any SF bookstore. It's also the only place i've seen with those ladders on wheels to allow you to reach the books 15 feet off the ground. Granted, finding anything in this store is hard, the rows of narrowly placed shelves are confusing, but the staff will help you out if your in need. It's better to just browse at random, picking up whatever catches your eye. It's so much fun i was hyperventaling. -
Review from jubi l.
San Francisco, CA
5/9/2006
Like this mom & pop bookstore too bad they are retiring. When you have a chance, hit this place up I guaranteed you'll like it.
Retirement Sale 40% off whole entire store. My boyfriend bought close to 18 Arts books while I feasted on 15 Classical Literature books including the Ann Rice autograph collection & Henry Kissinger.
The staff were very helpful and asks if we needed help loading our books in our car. One of these days when I'm in the city I will buy more books. ^_^ -
Review from Carrot C.
San Francisco, CA
3/24/2007
This once great bookstore now appears to be...CLOSED! :( I was across the street from it on Thursday night (3/22/07) at Field's Bookstore for an author's talk...and Acorn looked completely abandoned, shut down, nada no more.
Any yelper have any clue? This used to be a great place to QUIETLY browse (never been in a more hushed bookstore) and get out of the nobbish hill daze for 30 minutes. ...I think they're extra particular about what they'll buy, but you'll definitely (or used to be able to... sniff) find gems.
Hope you're still there, Acorn, and that I'm just way too myopic for my own good.
Love,
Carrot -
Review from Irene F.
9/4/2006
Great book store for rambling about in and just looking at random books. You'll be sure to find something you will eventually want to read! Unfortunately, they are closing soon, but the up side is that they are clearing out all the books they own. That means you can do what I did and get 3 books for $7!!! Sweet! Take that, Barnes and Nobles.
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Review from Suzanne B.
San Francisco, CA
4/14/2006
My favorite part of this store - aside from the fact that they are able to keep my beat-era-addicted brother in funky used reading material - is the friendly, accessible vibe. I've been in some stores where you are expected to bow down and worship the hallowed sanctity of the first edition. I prefer a bookstore that celebrates the wonder of the small discovery and the sheer joy of digging through the stacks.
Listed in: Presents!!
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Review from Arwen O.
San Francisco, CA
10/3/2005
My favorite kind of used bookstore. There are tall shelves and good light, sliding ladders and nooks and crannies. I desperately wanted to work here when I graduated high school. Wonderful, eclectic, sometimes inexpensive finds (last time I was there I got a cheap first edition of one of MFK Fisher's memoirs, and we stumbled across a children's book from the 50s I grew up with but lost). Not necessarily the place to go with something specific in mind, but you will always find something to surprise and delight you.
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Review from Jude F.
San Francisco, CA
6/16/2005
An excellent place to browse, best if you don't have anything terribly specific in mind but just want to find a good book. Old library feel.
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Review from miriam b.
San Francisco, CA
7/26/2006
(soon to be R.I.P. Another one bites the dust.) Everything 70% off. Got a wonderful out of print coffee table art book on tile and artwork from muslim artisans that would have been really heavy in shipping weight, blah, blah blah, had that BRAmaSzINdotCOM store had it available. OH well, everything is going VIRTUALLY to SILICONicity pole sliding.
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Review from Margie N.
San Francisco, CA
3/31/2006
Looking for a place to kill time, I wandered into Acorn Books and was immediately hit with that... booky smell. The library-like environment threw me for a loop and my damn boots were making too much noise for the nice quiet patrons of this tiny establishment, but I continued on my journey. The chart at the front of the store attempted to help me figure out what I might want, but when you're not looking for anything in particular its kind of pointless looking for a certain genre, and in the end I figured my nose would direct me to where I wanted to be, and it did (the least smelly aisle). Well that, and I was trying to avoid the ladder-climbers and the three other people in the store, wandering around with their little growing stacks of books. Expect to find random books that you weren't necessarily looking for at the time, but somehow decide that you have to have because they're so cheap and it would be stupid of you not to buy them.
Retirement sale? Going out of business sale? I'm not sure whats happening at Acorn, but get over there for 40% off while they're doing their something something sale. -
Review from Michael C.
Daly City, CA
8/21/2005
I stopped in here one day because I always saw it, and I liked it. I found some old books that I really wanted, and I could have purchased them if I weren't in a hurry and had some more cash in my pockets that day. Oh well. But the selection is wide, and you can find random things that might interest you.
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Review from ordulph o.
San Francisco, CA
3/29/2006
Wonderful used bookstore, but mildly chaotic inventory. Expect to pay for anything collectible or rare, but generally I find the prices lower than Green Apple.
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Review from Cornelius S.
San Francisco, CA
7/10/2006
's one of the old hallowed san francisco bookstores you thought would out live you and the next 10 generations, but alas they're calling it quits at the end of the summer. in the meantime i'm buying up books like they're going outta style because everything is 50% off of the marked price.
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Review from calamity d.
Oakland, CA
7/23/2006
this place is so great. for some reason, they have a bunch of kids working at all times and it is not as chaotic or disorganized as most used book stores of the same caliber. an impressive and extensive collection of first editions and out of print volumes. a wide breadth of genres (fiction is only about 10% of the entire store) and one of those rad sliding ladders. definitely worth checking out, but be prepared to invest some time and don't bring anyone who will bitch about you browsing for hours.
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Review from Lijia X.
Berkeley, CA
3/5/2005
an old sliding ladder, kind of perilously exciting
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Review from Su Kyeong K.
San Francisco, CA
6/20/2005
Tons of used and out of prints books. Just go in and browse. You might be able to spot some treasure or soemthng you had thought of getting but never got around to it.
