I had a wide-ranging talk with Borderlands Books' owner and founder Alan Beatts. We discussed Borderlands' history -- including the controversy that garnered it unexpected national attention in 2015, landing Alan everywhere, from the pages of the New Yorker to on camera for Fox and other news outlets. We also talked about what the climate is like today for indie bookstores, both how they've dealt with Amazon and some of the innovative ways they continue to adapt to the future.
Borderlands Books is a new and used bookstore specializing in science fiction, fantasy, mystery and horror, located in San Francisco's Mission District. Borderlands is one of the largest stores in their specialty in the world, with nearly 30,000 titles in stock. The store has been mentioned in AAA's travel magazine VIA, Gourmet Magazine, and the Washington Post. Last April, Borderlands made Atlas Obscura’s list of 62 of the World's Best Independent Bookstores.
Alan Beatts is founder and owner of Borderlands Books. Alan was born and raised in the Bay Area and, after spending a decade working an eclectic collection of jobs, he opened Borderlands Books in 1997. Alan frequently and freely says that was probably the best and smartest thing he's ever done.
Episode link:
Borderlands Books website: https://borderlands-books.com
Next show: Nahid Fattahi is a humanitarian, storyteller, poet, yogi, and soon-to-be psychologist. She is also an Afghani refugee, and we’ll talk about some of her incredible experiences.
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