Abandoned Planet Bookstore

I moved out of the mission in 2001, and though I often returned from the East Coast, Seattle, or wherever I was living, I always went to my bookstore. When I moved to SF in 1995 (pre-​boom, can you imagine!!!) the owner, Scott, was my first friend in that wonderland of a place. I would sit there for hours with Indian beer, a book and the cat, just talking books with him. It was… perfect. I went back this year with my new husband to show him the only place where I felt at home… and burst into tears. My bookstore is no longer there. I miss that store, where you could get a steamy unauthorized biography of Jean Harlow for fifty cents, and Scott… who was a great writer, and one of the last people who gave a crap about the great artists of the area that were being pushed out (and collected first editions of Bukowski’s books). I remember Jack Micheline «fixing up» his amazing poem in the back room, so Scott could give him enough money to camp out in one of the «hotels» nearby and have enough to buy food, booze and smokes. I love San Francisco, but I loved it even more with the Abandoned Planet bookstore there. The owners of that space who kicked him out should be shot for killing what was a bastion of the cool city that was. I hope Scott is still somewhere showing new transplants the wonders of City Lights and the Beats, like he did with me.

Sorry, but this bookstore is now closed. I went to the last day sale a couple of weeks ago and bought a used book for 80 cents. Apparently, the landlord would not renew their lease.

Have you seen «Just Like Heaven» with Reese Witherspoon? This is the place the Book Store scene was filmed!

When reading old British novels and reading descriptions of ‘ye olde bookshoppes’ — I was apparently envisioning the Abandoned Planet Bookstore.
Walk in to the tinkle of the bell on the door, on creaky and well-​worn wooden boards covered with woven Chinese and Persian Rugs, you’re instantly transported into another realm.
Books line the walls from ceiling to floor, many are 2^nd or 3^rd editions and are shockingly inexpensive at less than $ 20. I picked up a Bronte and found it in excellent condition, with a pencil written inscription in the front dated towards the earlier half of the last century. Price? Fourteen dollars.
A-​mazing.
The setup is a bit confusing at first, but you adjust just in time to find that THAT book that you have always wished to own, is here, leatherbound in perfect condition, transported a hundred years in time. And said book is super duper cheap.
Absolutely an amazing place. Were I a native SF’er — I’d be back again to wander this Abandoned Planet.

I have always liked Abandoned Planet Bookstore because of the good selection of out-​of-​print books, foreign literature, and the work of local writers. Unfortunately, they seem to be clearing out a lot of their stock, which has me worried. I hope they bring in more because it would break my heart if the flavor changed too much or if they disappeared. We need more used bookstores like this! It’s part of what makes the Mission District so special.

For once my lack of direction serves some glad purpose and that is to cause me any amount of hours stumbling through and through this rabbit hole of books and curio– all covered in a fine patina of dust. The labyrinthine setup will at times lead you to a barrier of unshelved books or an impasse caused by a ladder straddled across an aisle (a no-​no zone for the superstitious).
On any hot indian summer day this little grotto will feel more like the center of the sun– which is to say there is no air conditioning unless you count the single mini desk fan oscillating in the center of the store, oh or the shallow exhale of the just about comatose old men reposing on the antique furniture. This place really would make happy aimless wanderers feel at home, so if you’re looking for something specific and expect a direct route to it, walk right out– or else expect to be utterly flummoxed by the abstruse cataloguing system.

If you don’t want to feel like a hipster intellectual stay clear from this bookstore.
For an antique book store, there’s not so many books. Most of the shelves are bare and feel like they were cleaned out. While the selection is so so, the prices are pretty cheap.

Mmmm… dusty book smell!!!
This is what you always imagined a smart book emporium to be like: musty but comfy, a tad bit mysterious, and friendly yet a little pretentious. You will walk in here and instantly feel like an asshole because you own so many cheap paperbacks instead of leather-​bound, hardcover classics. Even the cat seems to scoff at your ignorance.
Only solution? Buy some books and get reading! Those Baudelaire poems and Bronte novels won’t get into your head through osmosis, y’know…
BTW, I give them *huge* props for the Jack Micheline painting in the back room. Micheline was a pure poet — perhaps not the best poet, but a beautifully pure and lionhearted one nonetheless — and his spirit should be preserved everywhere possible. Thanks to Abandoned Planet, Micheline’s roaring soul is saved in at least one place (while the rest of S.F. devolves into generic suburban hollowness).

I really really enjoy this bookstore. Not only does it have reasonably priced used books but it has character — old music, great décor. It just *feels* like you could discover a great old hidden gem of a book here. I have idled away hours here browsing books, which is a key sign of a great bookstore.
Better get your books while you can though — it seems they’re getting rid of all their inventory. I can’t figure out whats going on, since the old guy who used to work here is gone. The new people behind the counter told me they’re going to keep it a bookstore and they have «lots of books in the back» and they just want to get rid of old inventory. BUT they’re selling the furniture and everything… seems fishy if you ask me. Just wait — it will be another overpriced «hip» mission boutique all too soon if you ask me. So sad.

You’d abandon any planet to get to a great bookstore like this.
Currently, they’re getting rid of their old stock of used books… so you can find some really great books for less than two dollars! I think it’s only lasting until July 2008.
I’ve purchased quite a number of books here — ranging from film books to art books to history books to fiction books to promo copies of books. It’s vintage book paradise! My detective intuition makes me think that the owner is a writer or an editor for a publishing company.
Sometimes when you’re browsing, you feel like you were transported back to the 19^th century since the shop is dark and woody and filled with old antiques that are also for sale. This place is CASH ONLY. They do not have a cash register and calculate everything down on a calculator.
My favorite score is an autographed copy from the author of a Woody Allen biography for less than $ 4 bucks.

A great vintage bookstore. They have all kinds of old books, so it makes for fun browsing. You will not find recently published used books here. I couldn’t resist a cookbook called «The Eating in Bed Cookbook» from 1962 complete with droll illustrations and commentary.
If you really want to experience one of those old bookstores with unique items, this is the place to be.

I would have had my License to Practice Homosexuality revoked if it wasn’t for this bookstore.
That’s right, I would have been breaking the law — I WOULD HAVE HAD TO SUCK COCK AND PACK FUDGE ILLEGALLY ON THE DL and you know I’m a classy whore so the very idea of engaging in illicit activities made me sick.
See, I realized that my copy of The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde had inexplicably VANISHED from my apartment, and if you know anything about DA GHEYYYS, you know that we’re all about fey period comedies, florid poetry, limp-​wristed wits, and unrequited love, i.e., OSCAR FUCKING WILDE. I really have no fucking idea what happened, it could have been pilfered by that craigslist hookup that went horribly awry or maybe it was that hooker I hired the other night, whatever, I’M NOT ONE TO DWELL IN THE PAST, what’s done is done and I knew crying over spilt milk — wait is that milk? — wouldn’t bring my Oscar back.
I entered Abandoned Planet disconsolate and exited euphoric.
All bookstores have their own particular «character» and Abandoned Planet is no different. It’s dark; it’s warm; it’s filled with antique-​ish furniture and impedimenta like a silver serving dish set; it’s a little scattershot books-​wise, though everything is organized alphabetically and by subject. There’s the requisite cat, of course. For some reason a lot of Japanese women work here — or at least they’re always working when I stop by – and one of them reminds me of GoGo Yubari, minus the homocidal BLOOD LUST. In addtion, the owner is a devotee of Beat poet Jack Micheline and, until recently, had dedicated the entire back room to him.
Right now the entire store is HALF-​OFF. Books, rugs, art, furniture, even the silver dishes — all 50% off. At first I almost shit in my pants when I saw this as such sales usually herald store closures. Thankfully, this is not the case. I was told that the owner has a large back stock of used books and decided to hold the sale in order to create more room.
And WOULDN’T YOU KNOW IT?!? In addition to Leon Edel’s Selected Letters of Henry James, the first edition of Company by Beckett, The Evening Colonnade by Cyril Connolly, and the older Pleiade edition of A la recherché du temps perdu, THEY HAD A COPY OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF OSCAR WILDE FOR ONLY FIVE DOLLAH! OOOOooooooOOOOOoooooo. LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! Fuck. Me.
Now I can re-​read classics such as
The Importance of Being Sodomized
Alice; or Mel’s Diner
Lady Windemere’s Rash
The Soul of Man Undersexed
De Pedicatoris
The Ballad of Reading Blueboy
A Bi-​friendly Husband
The Picture of Dorian’s Crotch
and most importantly fuck men with abandon. Abandoned Planet indeed.

I have vowed not to weigh myself down by owning more books, but every time I pass Abandoned Planet, it beckons to me. And then I go in, and it charms me, and I can’t resist my natural inclinations, and I leave an hour later with an armload of great finds. There are always sales and deals, and it’s such a comfy, tucked away spot, even amidst the bustle of 16^th street, that I always end up hiding inside and browsing for too long. This place is gold.

Abandoned Planet is as much curiosity shop as bookstore, it’s filled with reasonably priced antiques and rugs, none pristine, but that’s how I like them. The ambiance is great, and the shopkeeper was super friendly. I went looking for clock books, and found one about the history of clocks and clockmaking; but I was looking for more a valuation guide…
It’s a great store, and it reminded me of Europe. I’ll definitely go back.
UPDATE: Okay, I’ve been piano shopping. The piano player within has been suffering for years, neglected, and pent up. I dropped in Abandoned Planet and found a beautiful old upright, monstrously heavy, but in great shape and with a beautiful sound. I asked the man how much he’d like for it. He GAVE it to me. «Anyone with a truck who can get it outta here can have it.»
I was back two days later with a dolly, a UHaul, and a friend. The friendly passersby on Valencia and 16^th helped us get it up the truck ramp (I was emergency-​parked at the bus stop, Sunday morning… we got it into the truck, strapped in, – oh shit, bus coming!– closed the gate, and pulled out before the bus arrived.)
Okay, seriously, if not for the lack of ovaries, I’d have that guy’s baby. Thanks for the piano!!! FIVE STARS!

My favorite person in the whole world loves this shop, which is why I went here the first time, 6 years ago.
This bookstore has a good selection, and cats! Two cats that lounge around and let you pet them.
I have found good stuff in Fiction, Foreign Language, Mystery and Latin American, but I am sure there are winners in all the sections.
Great dollar bins outside, too.

A small independent used books store, and a very fine one too. The selection is suitably eclectic – nowhere as large as Green Apple’s but much better priced (I managed to find a copy of Raymond Queneau’s The Sunday of Life for only $ 5.00). It’s cozy place to browse in, and it’s frequented by two handsome and friendly store cats. If you’re looking to find a surprise on the shelf for an agreeably sane price, this is a good place to start.

i thought i saw a puddy cat here… some slight allergies to it. cat here.

Browsing through this tiny place, i was impressed by the ambiance that this place exudes, i was severly dissapointed by the selection. I was going to give it 3 stars, but then, when i was about to leave, it earned another star. There is nothing more essential for a good used book store than a good used book store cat. She was an excellent used book store cat, she sat by the register (read a desk covered in books) and purred seductivly at whoever went in or out. She distracted me another good 10 minutes from catching my bus.

One time I went in to Abandoned Planet and I noticed that the Radical Politics section had disappeared and I asked the storekeeper what happened to the books and he told me they were in there filming a movie and the owner wanted to move the books so they didn’t get in the shot.
One other time about a year ago I was in there shopping for books and I saw Matt Gonzalez hanging out surfing the internet. No lie. Ok, he’s no Willie Brown, but what do you expect when you’re on 16^th and Valencia?
I’ve bought books from them too –its not just movie stars and celebrity politicians– and while the selection is not the greatest, the quality of books is superb and the prices are right where they should be.
If you are allergic to cats, take an extra hit of Claritin before you go in.