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Category: Bookstores [Edit]
Neighborhood: Haight-Ashbury"I knew about this store before I ever even stepped foot in it. My sister is a DJ on the side, she used to live right behind Cha Cha Cha's…" read more »
This store... is not for everyone. You must really love old books to like this store. You must also have patience (lots of patience) for the strange (very strange) people who work there and ideally, not be carrying anything of value with you that you might resent having grouchily taken from you and stashed behind a very messy counter.
Book selection in my areas of choice (SF/fantasy and mystery) is FANTASTIC. I filled in nearly all of the gaps in my Andre Norton stash at this place, and for pretty reasonable prices compared to similar used bookstores. Pricing on hardcovers is generally high however, and on newer paperbacks might be a little higher that standard. Selection is not the greatest in natural history/science, so my poor boyfriend gets very bored in here, and they appear to be above carrying romance at all, which always irks me (but I could have just missed it, this place is a maze). Overall, a mixed bag, but I adore books and have a soft spot a mile wide for used bookstores, so I don't mind it.
On to the proprietors, the subject of most of the Yelp reviews. Yelpers, I think you need to chill. These people are NOT normal... you can tell that instantly from the way the counter is literally papered over in tiny "NO..." notes... from the way they speak in monotones and have trouble with eye contact, except when snarling unintelligibly at each other.... from the way that they frantically handed us paper towels and literally freaked out that the light mist drops of water in MY HAIR would somehow touch the books when we came in on a rainy day... etc. You can tell that these folks are more than a little off, and I feel like a used bookshop (historical refuge of the weird) on Haight (land of the really, really, really weird) is their rightful home. I don't begrudge them their little warren of weirdness and am willing to humor them for access to all of those lovely books.
Finally, no matter how odd it all is, it can't be as weird as the used bookstore where I took my purchases home and opened them to find... CONFEDERATE FLAGS. Stamped on the title page of each book. Admittedly a low bar, but still.
I guess Forever After... wasn't.
So long, books, maybe now you'll have a chance to find a good home without your terminally insane guardian keeping people away from you.
Yes, everyone is right. There is a horrible, horrible female version of Gollum sitting behind the counter. Seriously, go see for yourself.
I'm actually surprised that they let you walk in here with clothes on. If it weren't illegal to require you to drop pants upon entering, they probably would ... because who knows how many books you're going to stuff in your bra.
After passing security, I asked for something in particular and the guy pointed me in the right direction but basically told me "good luck" because his customers always mess things up. That's nice, blame the customer.
Anyway, everything I looked at was severely overpriced. I hate to make an argument to buy new, but when you're looking at a ten year old Portuguese language book for $20 and a more recent copy on Amazon for $12 or less ... well, the argument makes itself.
Suck it, you're closed down!
It seems redundant to post yet ANOTHER one-star review of this place, but whatever--she was a total… Read more »
Oh guess what ????
Forever After Books .... Going,going, soon to be gone....
What could I say that has not already been said...
-Simon the Cat
I hate to say it, especially as local bookstores evaporate across the city, but the world is a better place with Forever After not in it. A used bookstore can be funky, eccentric, perhaps chaotic, and I will praise it to the skies. But if the customer service is abusive, if domestic disputes behind the counter spill into the store, if ridiculous hand-lettered signs prohibit me from doing just about everything, I will take my money elsewhere. So good riddance, Forever After. Haight St. is now a little less annoying.
I must disagree with almost everything said before. And, being an analyst in real life (as opposed to imaginary life I when I Yelp), I can do this point by point. Just watch me:
* Disorganization. Wrong. All the books are organized by category (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Science Fiction, etc.), then by period (Classics, New) then by alphabetical order of the author's last name. How hard is that? If you have been to the library, I personally find it much more disorganized than this store. The only thing that prevents people from going insane at the library is their online catalogue help. Without it - kaput.
* Unfriendliness of the staff. Never happened to me. I have been here countless times and the guy at the counter was always a gentlemen. Helped me find books I needed, helped me reach the books high up on the shelves, even reduced book prices for me, saying: "What the hell, why is this price higher than the publisher's?" Never rude, never derogatory to anyone at the store.
* Selection. Is great! I have found so many rare books even the Main Branch of the library had either "No Results" for "Missing" next to the title. Collections of science fiction are amazing. Classical collections are amazing: Flaubert, Balzac, Thackeray, Wilde; name the author and the book is there!
* This is the "Used Books" store. There is a certain smell to it the "Booksmith" down the street doesn't have. But so what. It's like complaining the vintage car you are just found god-knows-where doesn't look new and shiny. Get over it! There is a reason this place is still in business, unlike many of the stores on Haight that didn't make it!
This is as characteristic a Haight store as you will find. Together with the "Bound Together" anarchist store, these are the old-timers. "Booksmiths" come and go. These will stay. You want a clean bookstore experience - go to 'Borders' at the mall.
Haight is not for wimps!
Attempted to shop here one time. The scary lady behind the counter pointed her crooked finger at me and in a suspiciously witchy voice said "I'll get you my pretty.... ahem, cough cough... I mean, you can't come in here unless you give me your purse"
I looked around at the disheveled, unorganized rows of books, figure there was no way in hell I was leaving my valuables with the wicked witch of Haight Street and high tailed it out of there before I was assaulted by one of the flying monkeys I'm pretty sure they keep in the back room.
Is there a sweet, secret joy in being a curmudgeon? That would be one explanation for the shockingly rude way the owners of Forever After Books treat their customers.
Wow. Wow. It's true. The Forever After reviews on Yelp were right. The customer service is pretty appalling. After reading the terrible reviews on Yelp, I couldn't help but make Forever After Books my next bookstore-quest destination so that I can find out for myself how accurate the online comments were.
My brave friend, Sarah, and I ventured over to Forever After Books on Haight
From the sidewalk, the first thing you see through the open front door is a sea of narrowly spaced bookshelves. As soon as we walked in, a man popped out his head to my left and demanded that I checked my bag in. I had read online how much of a stickler he was for bag check-ins so I simply complied.
The first thing I saw when I walked into the store was a prominently displayed sign with a ridiculously long list of things that are prohibited in the store, including: food, drinks, dogs, guitars, sleeping mats, etc.
Next to that sign, was another sign forbidding customers from reaching over their heads for books that are shelved too high. As a safety precaution, this wouldn't be an unusual sign to have in a bookstore. The weird thing about it was, that it followed that line saying that the books on the higher shelves are "overstocks and are less interesting." Yes. They actually said that. And underlined "less." Do they know nothing about sales? How are you supposed to sell anything if you trash talk your own products?
Scattered throughout the store, there were dozens of signs warning customers not to do this or not to do that. However, I didn't see a single one of the usual signs bookstores have, such as Staff Picks or even section signs. You basically have to figure out the genre of each shelf on your own. Don't ask the owners questions. They don't like to be bothered by customers. If you look closely, the genres of each section are written on the wooden shelves themselves in faded black Sharpie.
The other notable thing about the store is how tightly crammed the aisles of bookshelves are. On the bookshelves themselves, the books are jammed in so much that it's inconvenient for the customers to find anything. Some of the books were actually jammed in sideways so that the spine faces the back of the shelf, making it impossible for the customer to even know what the book is without pulling it off of the shelf. And beware about taking too many books off of a shelf. I've heard that the owners yell at customers who take out too many books at a time. Strange. This is a bookstore. How are customers supposed to buy books without knowing what books you have?
They even took a Sharpie and blacked out the retail price that are printed on the back covers of books. Why? So you can't compare the retail prices with the prices they're charging? I don't know. All I know is that I like to have items priced when I go shopping. It's a hassle to bring every single item to the front of the store and have the employees dish out an arbitrary price at you.
Sarah and I actually approached the male owner to get a price check. Barely looking up from what he was doing, he said, "$3.69, plus tax. That's the minimum price here." With that, he grabbed the book out of her hand and said, "I'll put it back. I'm going to have to put it back anyway." He didn't even ask her if she wanted it. She could have wanted it. She could have considered buying it. But no. He snatched it away without even asking her. Sarah and I just looked at each other in shock. That's $3.69 he's not going to earn today.
Looking at the towering bookshelves, crammed with countless volumes I seriously felt unsafe. The bookshelves are safety hazards. This is San Francisco, aka earthquake central. All I want to say is that I do not want to be in that store when a big one hits. I would probably be buried under a ten-foot deep pile of books for days, wondering why a biography of Thomas Hardy would be in the same section as The Mayor of Casterbridge. I mean, I see the connection. But why mix fiction with biography? I digress.
As I was browsing through the aisle, a couple walked in. The male customer had a cell phone in his hand and the woman owner immediately snapped, "What's that in your hand? A cell phone? I can't even tell the difference between the electronic devices they have nowadays and I don't really care. Put it away! That's not allowed!" With that, the couple wandered over to the back aisle I was standing in and laughed with each other in disbelief saying, "Is she for real?!" Sadly, yes.
The verdict: just go. Go for the fun of it. Go for the experience. Go because you will probably get treated so rudely that it's actually funny.
Maybe it's unfair to write a review when I didn't get past the door dragon. "I have to take your purse", he says, pointing to the sign that says all bags, purses, wallets (?), electronic devices and just about anything a reasonable person might carry has to be left at the desk. "I have to spend my money elsewhere", I reply. If you don't trust your customers, why should I trust you?
Overall impression: crowded, dirty, dingy. There may be some treasures lurking in there, but I'm not motivated to find them.
Fellow yelpers have said it all. Nothing left for me to say.
Homeboy that worked behind the counter was a douchebag.
I called to find out if I could come by to sell books. When I told the lady on the phone (not sure if she's the owner), she launched into a tirade about how things in the store had been on sale for 35% off for weeks now and how did I expect her to be able to sell nonfiction which takes a year to move anyway, expecially so close to Christmas? She grew increasingly more shrill and hysterical as she continued, practically berating me for not having Christmas books to sell.
Forever After Books, here's a suggestion: If you don't don't have room in your store for more books, why don't you sell books online as well as in-store? Hire a high school student part-time to take care of order fulfillment. This way you can buy more books from sellers, move your inventory faster and have more customers to be annoyed by. The internet is a magical thing, my friends.
Pretty much the best collection of used books in the city.
However
-1 star for also being the most disorganized collection of books in the city.
-1 star for a generally unpleasant environment to go there; always listening to the woman at the front yell at people for some reason or another.
If it were in a book, I'd write it off as being too over-the-top and exaggerated. No one in real life can be that rude! But, no, they really are that bad.
It's a pity the store is located on a street with lots of tourists, because if they had to depend on repeat-customer business they would have gone down in flames a LONG time ago.
Let's see... incidents involving Forever After Books...
1) Going in with a friend, wearing small purses not even big enough to store a wallet, let alone a book. The guy behind the counter almost leaped over the counter in his hurry to berate us and kick us out of the store for "trying to steal books."
2) Seeing the employee yell at a grunge-dressed man for "obviously coming here to steal, since you don't look like you have the money to buy." When the man got offended and threw down the books he had chosen, I went over to help the employee pick up the books. The employee then turned his anger on ME, saying I was going to steal and to just "GET OUT GET OUT, GET OUT!!! (etc)."
It's almost worth going to if you want to hear a Dr.-Bronner's-Soap-Label style tirade babbled in your face with such force that spit actually lands on your cheeks (I kid you not-- try talking to the man with the long grey, tangled hair). Treat it like a novelty game. Just don't spend any money there.
If this place was pathetic, it'd be a serious upgrade.
Books everywhere... which is normally a good thing in a bookstore but most of these books are sideways and/or stacked so damned high that you have no idea what titles they have. I pulled a beat-up old paperback off a shelf and was considering getting it until I saw the price. $19.95. I am not kidding. I pulled some more books down and saw all the prices blacked out, prices on dust jackets snipped away and the penciled in prices were easily more than new price. That alone makes this place absolutely not worth the time.
Then there is the couple that owns it. In the space of five minutes I saw him kick a woman on a cell phone out of the store and threaten to call the cops on some poor guy who set off the shoplifting alarm (yes they actually have one!) for some reason or another. Then the wife left and I thought I'd have some peace and quiet to myself. WRONG because the husband kicked me out because he was closing the store to run an errand for 10 minutes.
These people are crazy. Not in the good eccentric kind of crazy but the awful, pathetic, bitter crazy. If you're looking for a freak show then go here. If you're looking for books, stay away.
Even without all of the above problems, the books have a smell of mustiness turning to mold. Not the good used book smell, but mold. Bring that home and it will ruin your book collection and take over your house. I know, I cleaned out a moldy house once. Gross.
This is one of those places that will collapse the moment the termites quit holding hands. Seriously.
The lady who works here is the BIGGEST BITCH I've ever met. Usually a statement like that coming out of my mouth can be discarded as an exaggeration, but I'm serious this time.
There was a man from New York there and he needed a map of San Francisco and Oakland. You and I know that the two aren't usually sold together on one map, but how could he? She treated him as if he had requested a map of Pluto. "You can't get them together. It's like asking for a map of New Jersey and New York. Are you PAYING ATTENTION TO ME? You have to buy two maps or stop wasting my time."
I offered him the use of my map application on my iPod and she snapped, "I don't allow the use of electronics in my store. Put it away."
Excuse me?
My friend gave the uber-bitch her debit card to pay for a few books (priced by the word, by the way) and she shooed it away because it had "see ID" instead of a signature. She gave some bullshit excuse as to why. I know it was bullshit, because I run credit cards daily, and the machine can't tell if there is a signature or not, as she claimed.
She then proceeded to rudely berate my friend about her evidently unwise spending habits and we just walked out.
I needed to get that off my chest. Thanks, Yelp.
I visited H-A mainly to "experience" this place. I walked in there with the lowest of expectations, which may have influenced my judgement. I was carrying my huge DSLR with a large lens mounted, so I wasn't even sure they were going to let me in. There was only one man working register and he said kindly "I can take the bag for you. You can keep the camera but please don't take any pictures inside." I was only too happy to let go of my moist plastic book bag.
I was in the store for more than an hour and was never disturbed by the shopkeeper. I did notice him checking on me once but I'm sure that was just to make sure I wasn't buried under a pile of books.
I witnessed a number of interactions with other customers, mostly people looking for particular authors or obscure subject matter. He answered each customer courteously and confidently, and the interactions were sprinkled with "thank you"s, "please"s and random acts of kindness.
The selection is enormous! About half of the books are obscured and not visible from the floor. Any person willing to spend the time to go through the piles would surely be rewarded with some gems. And the signs say to "Use a stepladder or ask for help" instead of reaching for books in the upper shelves. Good advice.
Piles of undiscovered books are why I go to antique book stores. Most books are clearly labeled with price. They aren't cheap, but both hardbacks and paperbacks are currently discounted.
Had the prices matched the low-end presentation, then this would have been a 5-star review. And yes, they are very picky about CC signatures. That's why I only walked out there with a single book. My fault entirely.
What the heck.
It depends upon a mood. The store can be a dreadfully cluttered mess with a dreadful woman behind the counter. It can be wonderfully over-stuffed with a wonderful crab-apple owner behind the counter. It depended upon my mood. So what the heck.
note: one needs to be in a very very very good mood to rate the store this high. I doubt my rating will hinder the sure tide of the general low opinion. I am a pebble.
This place is insane in every possible way. The proprietors are crazy (really crazy. I'm not even sure that all the irate one-star reviews here are sufficient preparation for this level of crazy), the shelves are in no particular order, and the selection is schizophrenic, with an alarming number of completely obsolete volumes. ("Best Parakeet-Friendly Philadelphia B&Bs--1988 edition"--OK, I made that up, but along those lines.)
AND YET there is something compelling and charming about the madness at Forever After. Perhaps I simply appreciate it as one of the few holdouts of genuine hippy absurdity (lots of "faux absurd" to be purchased on Haight, but the truly weird is fast becoming extinct). The prices make no sense either: on a recent trip to the bargain carts I found a falling-apart pulp novel for $5 (overpriced) while a really nice anthology of contemporary Australian speculative fiction went for a buck (I bought it). Forever After is NOT the place to go find that book you just heard reviewed on Fresh Air but can't remember the title of (you know, it's about autism, and a Jewish zookeeper, and a spelling bee, and self-discovery in Italy, and a road-trip in Latin America...you know that one?), but if you're in the mood to discover something so far beyond the trite and cliche publishing conventions of this era that it'll BLOW YOUR MIND, this is exactly the right place to go.
"Leave your coffee mugs here at the counter." were the first words I heard as I entered. Ok, he's worried about spills and was less than tactful about the way he said it. I can forgive him that one transgression. Then as I'm browsing the aisles I hear him telling others entering that they needed to leave their bags behind the counter with Grumpy McGrumperson. Who steals used books?
So I picked out my one book in about 10 minutes (the place has a decent selection and stuff was easy to find despite the massive amounts of books). I hand the cashier my book to buy and pick up my coffee mug once again. As I take a sip out of my spill-proof mug (it doesn't spill unless I ask it too), the dude says "you can drink your coffee once you're outside."
I swallow my gulp and politely try to give him an opportunity to redeem himself . . . "I'll bet you've had a lot of pretty bad spills in here huh." To which he replied: "Could be." COULD BE?! You can't even chit-chat with people who are keeping your store in business? Did you have to be such a mean person in every aspect of my book-buying experience?
Do I wish this store would go bankrupt and will never shop here again? Could be.
Ugly, ugly, negative people own and operate this dirty little place. I am always seeing the wife at Goodwill Stores, pushing her fat ass past anyone waiting in line before they open. Once I saw an elderly black man slap the demented cow across the face because of her pushy behaviour. Everyone who witnessed this clapped, not a single person rose to her defense. Totally OBNOXIOUS, nasty little animal, that lady.
Judging from how unwelcome they always make their customers feel, I would not even buy one of their $1.00 clearance books.
The best thing I can say about these 2 is that they DESERVE each other.
The 1960's must have been unkind to these 2 losers.
Someone gave them the brown acid, I guess...
Go down the street and pay full price for your books at Booksmith.
You will feel better about yourself.
NO PHOTOS ALLOWED?
In fact, for years I have advocated several Yelpers get together and go en masse into their store and photograph EVERYTHING, then we all just silently turn around and leave.
A potent reminder of what went wrong after the Summer of Love.
Every single shelf is double-stacked or has books sitting in front of books. Is their plan to force you to buy the books that fall down as you walk by them? You break it, you buy it? Seriously, people -- purge your stock occasionally.
Customers aren't allowed to look at their phones in the store, or touch paper and pencil -- because the owners don't want you to compare their prices with used book sites on the internet like Amazon Marketplace, ABE, or Alibris. There's a reason for that: their prices generally suck, and are often twice the online price.
If you're looking for books, there is no reason to go to this store. If you're just looking for a historically interesting bookstore, McDonald's Bookshop is far more entertaining, in a nice, non-aggro kind of way.
So here's the thing. Yes, this is a very BAD bookstore. But it's SO bad it's really quite good. You just have to stop thinking of it as a bookstore and start thinking of it as a privileged peek inside the curious pathology of a couple of old-time Haight residents. In a way, a visit to the Haight just isn't complete without a trip into Forever After Books.
What's so odd about this bookstore? For one, the books are stacked so high and with such complete disorganization that there are hand-written signs all over the place telling people not to touch the books lest they fall and crush you. For another, the couple who run the place are always bickering with each other about something absurd like whose fault it is that the dishwasher won't run. And, if you're fortunate enough to engage one of these curious people in conversation, you'll learn all kinds of strange things about the world, such as how many months are left until we all die.
Sure, they'll yell at you for carrying in a bag and for touching the books. Sure, they won't have any books you'll want to buy. But wow! The stories you'll have to tell after you leave.
It was very hard for me to score this one.
As much as I despise these people, I do take into account that they provide for a sometimes entertaining, but always a learning experience each time you enter that bookstore. It is unusual to come across such sociopathic personalities in civilized society.
But, I have scored them ONE star because I want them gone! They don't belong in the Haight. A used bookstore belongs in that spot, yes. Or maybe a cannabis club. But not these asshole wastes of space.
Perhaps they would be more comfortable in the Tenderloin. Think about it folks, if this shop was located in the Loin it would make so much more sense. Then the frantic control they attempt to exert over their customers wouldn't seem so unusual. Their negative, unpleasant, and sometimes just straight crazy personalities would blend right in among the loonies and crack addicts. Perhaps there, they could find happiness.
Honestly though, I've been racking my brain. Why would they do this? Why would they even open such a business if they don't want to sell books? I mean, from their prices and complete and utter disregard for customer satisfaction it is obvious that the purpose of this bookstore is not to sell books. I'm thinking this so-called 'business' is a front for something else. I hope if it is, they get busted so that something useful can go in the space.
What can I say that everyone else hasn't already said? The people who run this place are indeed insane, the selection is below average at best, the store is dirty and disorganized, and the prices are crazy for a used book place. You can't even LOOK at your phone in here because they're convinced you're taking pictures (for what? my new book, titled Shittiest Bookstores in America?). Avoid it at all costs. Please, go to Booksmith up the street instead. You'll end up paying publisher price for the book, but you might actually find it and not get yelled at in the process.
Here's the thing- I'm all for messy-get lost forever in a sea of gems- bookstores.
But to browse said bookstores, you have to be welcome there. I've experienced book snobbery at it's finest here. Don't ask the folks at the counter for help, they aren't interested in making money. If you're looking for a book that more than five people have read, don't ask
them if they have it, they'll roll your eyes and consider you illiterate.
It's kinda like that show Blackbooks on BBC, but not funny.
Matt could care less about what other reviewers think about this non-chain bookstore that sells a lot of used and rare out of print books. Used books at this bookstore are really cheap.
Matt's first asked the lady on the counter for the TRUE CRIME Section. She was extremely friendly and showed me the huge selection in the categorize book section. Her knowledge in the field of True crime is very impressive. Many of the books from that section and possibly most books from the store are old and rare. And Matt loves to read the older and rare True crime books. Matt bought 3 books, including one books that was published in 1927 by Herbert Asbury, which is currently unavailable anywhere else including Borders and B & N.
Once Matt finish his three books, the store will buy them back and Matt will feast on other True Crime novels.
I live around the corner and have been in this store multiple times throughout the years. Many of these reviews are dead on. The woman is hilariously grumpy. You have to go inside with protective gear. One time, I listened to her rant for half an hour about her psychoses. I wish that I could remember the details-It was TMI to such an extreme
Despite the book-nazi owners, a decent selection of books.
Finally went into this place today and it's official. I'm a book slut. Can't get within 10 feet of a book store without buying a book. This week in particular has been bad. I started out with three books on Sunday, four more on Tuesday and one (almost two) more today.
Getting back to Forever After Books...
I LOVE this bookstore. It's the bookstore of my dreams. Books stuffed into every nook and cranny - stuffed in sideways on top and in front of the shelves, piled to the ceiling over your head basically, a book slut's dream come true.
Love-hate relationship with this bookstore.
Love the books and items there. Decent prices for calendars, books (used more than new), and other knickknacks.
Hate the owners there. Always yelling at customers. Scaring away people in general. And very, very protective of their books.
And the books are supposed to be in order, but not really. Not organized by author nor title either. It's a mess.
Sometimes I go in just to look for a certain something at a cheaper price, and other times I avoid going in, after hearing the yelling from outside of their doorway.
Yeah, good luck.
oi.
the first time i went into this bookstore, i thought i was in heaven! they had a great selection of out-of-print natural history books. i was in the store for about 45 minutes, deciding what to buy. i had decided on 8-9 volumes, and was stacking them up to carry them to the register. then, a male employee came around the corner, took one look at me, and said "this isn't a library", and continued to berate me for having pulled my books off the shelf. it never even crossed his mind that i was going to buy them all. after being spoken to in such a manner, i put all of the books on the floor and walked out. i hope he had fun putting them away. i've never gone back, and i never will.
they also have a lovely habit of cutting the price out of the dust jackets so people don't realize that they're paying double for a book they could find at booksmith down the street.
The woman who runs this store is a psychopath. I spent about an hour browsing the fiction/mystery section, while she spent the hour yelling at everybody from customers to the other guy working there. The prices are above "industry standard" for paperbacks. However, the walls are bursting with books, and the aisles are nice and narrow which is something I enjoy about a used bookstore.
If you go in, make sure to leave your coffee outside & wear some earphones so the crazy lady doesn't distract you.
Also, the shelfs are horribly labeled -- took me at least a minute to find the fiction section.
If you read my reviews, you'll see that I am not a critic using traditional senses to gauge the 1-5 star ratings. Rather, I enjoy the offbeat, odd, freakshows of the world. I am putoff by the highly glossed, primped and magazined establishments because I don't care to be groomed on what a good experience is. If something plucks a reminiscent, comically entertaining or emotive chord to create a memorable situation or experience, I love it (even if it is somewhat painful).
Take this experience, shopping at Forever After Books, in exemplar. I can't refute what the other reviewers have said: the couple do fight and the woman is pathologically off, you need to leave your bag with them at the door, and they are rude. That said, they aren't rude because they want to hurt you - they are just strange and rude is merely a result.
They will ask you what you are looking for and then point you to the end of the 3rd row about halfway up (Engineering) or to the 2nd row on the end shelf (Computers/Video Games). There doesn't seem to be a cataloging system, but they know where things are. It's a bit Rain Man. It smells like old books and they (don't) sell the thousands of old books stacked to insulate the walls and prop the ceiling. It's an extremely dangerous situation and I bet they need to close for days every time there is a slight tremor.
If a browser walks out without buying anything, the couple trash-talks them. Seriously - it's hysterical. They do have some decent books for decent prices and odd bits here and there... but just go and eavesdrop on them for a few. They are organic, delicious characters that couldn't be invented. It's too bad that they put off so many people - who will dig them out of their fetid piles of books when the Big One comes?
I enjoy the offbeat, odd, freakshows of the world. This one's free (if you don't buy a book).
It hurts to give this absolute dump, which is run by a psychotic former Fresno State professor and a once-homeless guy, any stars at all, but c'est la guerre (or l'ecrire).
It obviously has not changed in more than 20 years. An intimate worked there briefly in the 1980s, until he could take it no longer. An out-of-town friend attempted to shop there once, about a decade ago, until the owner and her ex-bum boyfriend made it clear they would rather send a customer with a couple of hundred bucks to spend back onto the street, to a more welcoming bookstore.
I love used book stores. I always find the funnest books in there but this store is just TERRIBLE. Ive only been in there twice, but everytime that I have gone in, Ive regretted it. Such negativity.
Shes always bitching at poor customers :(
today she yelled at some guy because he was looking for a map.
nope
i wont be going there again. . .
on another note, the books arent even cheap.
As devoted as I am to bookstore browsing, I find this one - the cluttered domain of a seriously demented married couple clearly made for each other - to be so unwelcoming there may as well be a Keep Out sign hanging on the door.
DO NOT SHOP HERE. These people deserve to go out of business and I wonder how it's possible they still are in business considering the way they treat anyone who sets foot in their store. The only time I went in here, I asked politely where I might be able to find As I Lay Dying by Faulkner. The woman responded to me as if I was a blind retard because the fiction section is clearly labeled in faint black ink on a small card hidden behind the millions of books they have stacked in the corner. Then she insulted me by saying only pretentious people read Faulkner. They also kicked a person out of the store who glanced at her phone to check the time. SHE WAS NOT EVEN TRYING TO MAKE A PHONE CALL!!!! Next time I go in there, I'm going to poop on their floor and take a picture of it with my cameraphone and text it to my friends.
I generally agree with the other reviews. The owner/owners are often actually directly offputting. The selection is ... well, strange, but you can find a book you're after here once in a while at a good price. I called today looking for a book and actually got some assistance, which was nice even though they didn't have what I was after.
I live in the neighborhood, so I've been to this place 3 times (I usually do my book-shopping at The Booksmith or go to the local branch of the public library).
I HATE this place. On my most recent visit, I went there to purchase a copy of Johnny Tremain (I'm a middle-school teacher and needed a copy). I was so excited to find a copy for $1, but my happiness was quickly dashed when I went to purchase it and the the male clerk told me that my total was $3.69. HUH? I showed him the page in front that clearly stated that the copy was on sale for a dollar to which he replied, "The minimum purchase price is $3." I asked, "Even if I'm paying in cash?" He told me that he would not sell it to me for a dollar and that I needed to find another book. Furthermore, that the only $1 books for sale were the ones located in the bin outside of the store. I slapped the book down on the counter and left.
Ugh, the nicest thing I can say about this store is that it is NEVER-EVER going to get my business ever again.
Can we do negative stars? Count mine as negative because I swear, this place makes me angry just to walk past it. I can't say that I've EVER had that reaction to a store, much less an independent bookstore but after 3 chances, they struck right out. The couple is horrible, the woman is the worst. It's not often that you get yelled at in someone's establishment, I dare to say its even less likely that it would happen on more than one occasion, but it did. I'm sorry, I'm all for the old mom and pop establishments, but screw this place. They do an injustice to books. Geez, I'm getting mad just thinking about it again.
Neighborhood: Haight-Ashbury
Category: Bookstores
Neighborhood: Mission
Category: Bookstores
Neighborhood: Haight-Ashbury
Category: Bookstores
Neighborhood: Castro
Category: Bookstores
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond
Category: Music & DVD's
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