Notes from a DVD Geek

by Jeremy Lassen

It's the Yule season, and frenzied purchasing sprees are in the air.   DVD's make great stocking stuffers, or gifts, or whatever.   For those of you find the holiday to be a torturous mess filled with awkward family gatherings and not much fun, I've got some suggestions for you.

First up is the original torture-porn extravaganza . . .  "The Girl Next Door".  Anybody who has read Jack Ketchum's landmark horror novel knows what a grueling, psychological roller coaster it is.  I have to be honest -- I haven't seen the movie yet.  It's directed by no one you've ever heard of, starring nobody you've ever heard of.  But it's going to the top of my To Watch pile, simply because the source material is so magnificent.  I have modest hopes for the movie, but . . .  they are still hopes.

"Hostel Part 2" is out on DVD.   The most original and creative of the torture-porn releases has a mediocre follow-up that delivers what you would expect from a franchise of this type.  If you have the holiday season blues, this will be sure to make you realize that someone, somewhere, is having a worse day.

November Bestsellers

Hardcovers
1. Postsingular by Rudy Rucker
2. Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker
3. War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card
4. Ice, Iron and Gold by S.M. Stirling
5. Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe
6. Hilldiggers by Neal Asher
7. Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
8. Imago Sequence & Other Stories by Laird Barron
9. Reserved for the Cat by Mercedes Lackey
10. Spook Country by William Gibson

Mass Market Paperbacks
1. Dog Days by John Levitt
2. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
3. The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy
4. Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson
5. Glasshouse by Charles Stross
6. Old Man's War by John Scalzi
7. Endgame by Kristine Smith
8. Odyssey by Jack McDevitt
9. Light by M. John Harrison
10. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Trade Paperbacks
1. World War Z by Max Barry
2. Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey
3. Speculative Japan edited by Grania Davis and Gene van Troyer
4. 9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood tied with Rewired: The Post Cyberpunk Anthology edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
5. The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club by Kim Newman

The 2007 Gift Guide

It is that time of year again . . . warm feelings in the heart, a chill in the air, and my neighbors with their terrifying holiday decorations.  (Light-up, three-foot-tall Wise Men in the trees - now that is scary!) But I digress.  This is a cozy time of year, when many of you more-domestic-than-me types bake cookies and gather the loved ones close by the fire . . . or maybe your whole Wiccan circle goes camping in the mountains with organic goodies . . . or perhaps you play World of Warcraft with your buddies, a huge bag of Doritos, and a gallon-size Mountain Dew . . . or maybe you get Chinese food and watch zombie movies with the cats . . . or curl up by yourself with a good book or seven! However and with whomever you choose to spend your holidays, we wish you joy and fun.

To make the present-giving parts of the season easier, here is the officially-official Borderlands Guide to Holiday Gifts, with a little something for everyone -- even you!

GOOD-FOR-ANYONE-GIFTS:

Y'know when you want to give something nice to someone you don't know very well? Skip the snowman sweaters - these are never-fail choices.

*The Princess Bride 25th Anniversary Edition by William Goldman (Ballantine, Hardcover, $24.95, or Mass Market, $7.99) - I have never met *anyone* who dislikes this book, which is close to a miracle.  The perfect blend of humor, action, adventure, romance, and Rodents of Unusual Size.

*Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (Morrow, Hardcover, $29.95, Harper, Trade Paperback, $14.95, and HarperTorch Mass Market, $7.99) - The funniest book about Armageddon you'll ever read.

*We have a large selection of blank books, including Moleskine journals, Sandman and fairy journals, Tim Burton's Tragic Thoughts Journal (which lights up!) and handmade journals from the Pettingill Book Bindery in Berkeley.  Prices range from $7.99 to $18.99.

*Wooden boxes in a variety of sizes and designs will suit anyone.  Prices range from $5.00 - $36.00.

AMUSING GIFTS:

*The Android's Dream by John Scalzi (Tor, Hardcover, $24.95 and Mass Market, $6.99) - An intersteller incident inspired by flatulence and sheep. How does it get better?

*The ACME Catalog by Charles Carey (Chronicle, Trade Paperback, $14.95) - An entire catalog of (mostly) fictional products for Looney Tunes characters to purchase at their own risk!

*Great Lies to Tell Small Kids by Andy Riley (Plume, Small Softcover, $11.00) - I pick a new favorite every day, but today's is "It is unlucky NOT to name every ant you see. For your whole life."

*The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, complied by Stephen Briggs (Harper, Hardcover, $22.95) - Various bits and pieces, witty commentary and sagacious observations culled from all the Discworld novels.

Lamb, or The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore (Morrow, special gift edition with Bible-like cover & sewn-in bookmark, $19.95, and Perennial, Trade Paperback, $13.95) - A funny, respectful and oddly touching re-telling.

The Stupidest Angel (a Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror) by Christopher Moore (Morrow, small Hardcover, $15.95) Christmas.  With zombies.  It's a theme, you know.

HORRIFIC GIFTS TO TERRIFY THOSE YOU LOVE:

*20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (Morrow, Hardcover, $24.95) We have just a few signed copies of this brilliant debut short story collection remaining.

*The Dark Descent edited by David Hartwell (Tor, Trade Paperback, $29.95) - The classic, indispensible collection with a little bit of everything for the horror fan.

*Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin (Bantam, Trade Paperback, $16.00) - Glorious, unsentimental Mississippi riverboat vampire novel.

*The Devil You Know by Mike Carey (Warner, Hardcover, $24.99) - We still have a few signed copies of this awesome first novel about freelance exorcist Felix Castor.

*World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Barry (Three Rivers, Trade Paperback, $14.95) - George Romero meets Studs Terkel.   Unforgettable and strangely moving.

*I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (Orb, Trade Paperback, $14.95) - Read (or give) the novel before the movie comes out.

FOR THE PARANOID ON YOUR LIST:

*Four Novels of the 1960 s: The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ubik by Philip K. Dick (Library of America, Hardcover, $35.00) - This lovely and literary volume collects these four novels.

*Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff (Harper, Oversized Softcover, $20.00) - Conspiracy upon conspiracy, plus a "Natural Causes" Gun that shoots heart attacks!

*How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion by Daniel H.  Wilson (Bloomsbury, small Softcover, $12.95) - Certainly the title speaks for itself.

*The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead by Max Barry (Three Rivers, Trade Paperback, $13.95) - Remember, "organize before they rise!"

ENDURING CLASSICS IN GIFT-Y HARDCOVER FORMATS:

*Dune by Frank Herbert (Ace, Hardcover, $29.95)

*Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Tor, Hardcover, $25.95)

*The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Del Rey, Hardcover, $30.00)

*The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein (Houghton Mifflin, Collector's Edition bound in green leather with matching slipcase, $35.00; Houghton Mifflin, Hardcover illustrated by Tolkien, $16.00; Houghton Mifflin Hardcover illustrated by Alan Lee, $35.00; Houghton Mifflin Hardcover illustrated by Peter Sis, $18.00)

*The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (Dutton, Hardcover, $22.99)

*The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Wings, Hardcover, $14.99) - Includes all five novels - The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long and Thanks for All the Fish; and Mostly Harmless.

FOR YOUR WEIRDER FRIENDS AND FAMILY:

*Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis (Morrow, Hardcover, $21.95) - If Hunter S. Thompson, Dashiell Hammett and Christopher Moore had written a novel together, this would be it.

*The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet edited by Gavin Grant and Kelly Link (Del Rey, Trade Paperback, $14.95) - Some of the best from the hugely popular 'zine.  Genre-bending and expectation-defying.

*Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar (Soft Skull, Trade Paperback, $13.95) - Quirky and sweet novel with several sincerely unconventional protagonists including a handful of drunken Scottish fairies.

*Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey (Night Shade Books, Trade Paperback, $14.95) - Awesome novel set in San Francisco and Hell with an unlikely tattoo-artist hero.

*Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death by Corrine May Botz (Monacelli Press, Oversized Hardcover, $35.00) - This gorgeous photo book showcases the mind-boggling work of Frances Glessner Lee, who created incredibly realistic doll-house death scenes to assist in training forensic and police investigators.  Perfect for the CSI fan in your life.

*Gun With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem (Harcourt, Trade Paperback, $14.00) - Surreal noir detective novel, one of my favorites.  The threatening kangaroo is just the beginning.

*A Box of Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley (Plume, two small softcovers in a cardboard slipcase, $20.00) - Box includes THE BOOK OF BUNNY SUICIDES and RETURN OF THE BUNNY SUICIDES.  Cartoons featuring little fluffy rabbits who just don't want to live any more.

MORE GOOD STUFF:

*The Golden Compass is the big, beautiful, uproar-inciting movie of the Winter.  We have several different formats of all of the books in the His Dark Materials series (The Golden Compass,The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman) for your controversial reading-or-presenting pleasure: Mass Markets from Laurel-Leaf, $7.50 each, Trade Paperbacks from Knopf, $11.95 each, and two different kinds of Hardcover from Knopf, the regular ($20.00 each) and the Special editions ($22.99 each).  We also have all three books in one omnibus trade paperback volume from Knopf, at $21.99.

*Territory by Emma Bull (Tor, Hardcover, $24.95) - A magical re-telling of the events leading up to the gunfight at the O.K.  Coral.

*River of Gods by Ian McDonald (Pyr, Hardcover, $25.00, and Trade Paperback, $15.00) - India in 2047 is a very odd place.  An excellent novel full of fascinating ideas.   *Firebirds edited by Sharyn November (Viking, Hardcover, $19.99 and Trade Paperback $8.99) - One of my favorite anthologies -- this one has some brilliant stories in it.

*Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages (Tachyon, Trade Paperback, $14.95) - Feral librarians, time-traveling lesbians, and the origin of beetles.  Short story collection that will make you laugh and sigh.

*Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio by John Picacio (Monkeybrain Books, Oversized Hardcover, $39.95) - We still have some signed copies of this stunning art book.

*Wild Girls by Pat Murphy (Viking, Hardcover, $16.99) - One of the best novels ever about self-discovery through writing and rebelliousness.

*Blindsight by Peter Watts (Tor, Hardcover, $25.95) - Grim, fascinating hard SF novel.  One of the most thought-provoking of the year.

If nothing in this lengthy list sounds just right, please ask us --- we'll be happy to recommend something!

Notes from a DVD Geek

by Jeremy Lassen

Hey everyone . . . I’m going to focus on “Special Edition” re-releases galore this month.  That’s right . . . re-releases of your favorite films and TV shows.  Is it really worth paying for twice?  Or should you hang onto your previous edition, and not bother with the upgrades?  These are tough questions that every cinemaphile faces, and I’m here to help.  

First up is "The Return of the Living Dead".  I know I promised to not talk about horror films, but this is "The Return of the Living Dead" --  you know, the Greatest. Zombie. Movie. Ever!  Now it's available as a two-disk special edition: everyone’s favorite punk rock zombie movie gets a slightly better treatment then it had previously.  There is a new commentary track featuring cast members that is excellent, although occasionally silly, and there is a really good feature-ette covering the making of this film.  There’s also a generic and not terribly exciting mini-documentary on 80’s horror, which is mostly forgettable.  The picture quality is the same as the previous version, and there is no new cut, or version of the film.  It’s the same one from the first DVD, and it features some of the same minor problems regarding dialogue replacement and some song synching issues that were different in the VHS/laser disk edition.  Not perfect, but slightly better.  If you don’t own the earlier DVD version, well, you’re a bad person, but you can make up for it by buying the special edition DVD right now.   If you do own it, you're probably a total fan of this movie, and it's worth getting, even if it doesn’t include some of the “holy grail” work print material, or some of the “fixes” that zombie fan purists demand.  “Send more DVDs!”

October Bestsellers

Hardcovers
1) Halting State by Charles Stross
2) 2012 by Whitley Strieber
3) Bloodline by F. Paul Wilson
4) Making Money by Terry Pratchett
5) Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman
6) Fatal Revenant by Stephen Donaldson
7) Spook Country by William Gibson
tie with A Lick of Frost by Laurell Hamilton
8) Ice, Iron and Gold by S.M. Stirling
9) The Merchant's War by Charles Stross
10) The Wild Girls by Pat Murphy tie with Postsingular by Rudy Rucker

Mass Market Paperbacks
1) Blood Engines by T.A. Pratt
2) Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
3) The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy
4) Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine
5) Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
6) Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris
7) Harbingers by F. Paul Wilson
8) Spirit Gate by Kate Elliot
9) Spellbinder by Melanie Rawn
10) Sky People by S.M. Stirling

Trade Paperbacks
1) End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
2) Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey
3) Rewired: The Post Cyberpunk Anthology edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
4) Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
5) Grey by Jon Armstrong

Origin of the Bookstore, Part the Thirteenth

For the last year, we've been doing a special feature each month about what Borderlands is and how it got that way.  This is the last of the special features, showcasing stories from customers about how they discovered the store.

***********

I moved to San Francisco on November 10th, 1997 -- 3 days before my 22nd birthday, and apparently, just after Borderlands opened. I don't remember how I learned about the store, but it must have been a only few days after I arrived. I had an apartment, a small amount of money, no job, and a lot of time to wander around this new city I was already falling in love with. Somehow I found the store, and it's charming owner, and it's wonderful (if smallish, then) selection. It already felt like a great place, and I was impressed with the combination of polish and homeyness -- as much as I appreciate the "scary cave" school of used bookstores, my eyes and sinuses prefer the Borderlands approach. Alan told me to come back for the 'official' grand opening. I did. Books started their inevitable flow from Hayes Valley to the pile next to my bed (and, occasionally, the other way).

Borderlands became a regular haunt, and I proudly introduced others to it when I could -- new friends, old friends, my family when they visited, a charming & lovely woman from the east coast when she did.

Notes from a DVD Geek

by Jeremy Lassen

Welcome to the October edition of my DVD column.  This month, there will be a ton of really bad horror movies released on DVD.  I mean . . . just a lot of bad movies.  Because . . . well, it’s October.  And sadly, it's not a terribly good year for horror releases.  I’m going to skip most of the trash, but one piece of trash is notable, because it is the first Dark Castle production to go straight to home video (which is a bad thing) and it features Jeffrey Combs (which is a good thing).  "Return to the House on Haunted Hill".  This movie has none of the cast of the “original remake.” It’s a different director.  And as I said, it is direct-to-video.  But it has Jeffrey Combs eating the scenery, so if you’re a Jeffery Combs fan, pick it up.  Otherwise . . . well, let's move on.

"Twilight Zone, the Movie" is finally being released on DVD.  This was actually a pretty decent anthology film from 1983, wherein some of the best episodes from the original series were re-written.  You could watch this, or you could watch the original episodes.  It's your call, but I’ve got a soft spot for this movie.  I saw it in the theater, and it scared the crap out of me when I was a wee lad.

September Bestsellers

Hardcovers
1. Making Money by Terry Pratchett
2. Hilldiggers by Neal Asher
3. Promises to Keep by Charles de Lint
4. Little (Grrrl) Lost by Charles de Lint
5. The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
6. World War Z by Max Brooks
7. 1634: The Bavarian Crisis by Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce
8. Many Bloody Returns: Tales of Birthdays with Bite edited by Charlaine Harris
9.  The Nail and the Oracle by Theodore Sturgeon
10. Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis tie with
      Spook Country by William Gibson

Mass Market Paperbacks
1. The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy
2. Princes of the Golden Cage by Nathalie Mallet
3. The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross
4. A Meeting at Corvalis by S.M. Stirling
5. Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
6. Undertow by Elizabeth Bear
7. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
8. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman tie with
   A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
9. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
10. Hounding the Moon by P.R. Frost

Trade Paperbacks
1. Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey
2. Grey by Jon Armstrong
3. Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson
4. The Dog Said Bow-Wow by Michael Swanwick tie with
    River of Gods by Ian McDonald
5.  Nova Swing by M. John Harrison

Origin of the Bookstore, Part the Twelfth - The Real Story

For the last eleven months, we've been doing a special feature each month about what Borderlands is and how it got that way.  This is the last of the regular features, but we'll be doing a special, final "Origin" next month highlighting customers' stories.

by Alan Beatts

For reasons only dimly understood even now and too complex to get into here, I decided at 17 that I was best suited to some type of work that involved carrying a gun and dealing with violence.  Many people might have been worried about such a choice for reasons of their safety or health but at the time I was pretty firmly convinced that I wouldn't live to see 30.  I considered the military (too structured and they would make me cut my hair, which has been long for most of my life), the intelligence field (they wanted too much college and I was really sick of going to school), and several other, less respectable, options.  In the end I decided to go to college and study what was called either Administration of Justice (community college) or Criminology (UC and Cal State).  Through a bunch of twists and turns, I ended up doing what I planned and working all over while doing all kind of jobs -- jobs that ranged from interesting to deadly boring, safe to madly dangerous, useful to utterly pointless.  I learned a great deal, met some wonderful people, and I don't regret it for an instant.

And then I hit a wall.

As I was getting better and better at what I did and taking on more and more responsibilities, an essential conflict between my job and my personality become worse and worse.  I've always been a bit unconventional and politically liberal -- though my "liberalism" was only on about half the issues, on the other half I've always been "conservative" (i.e. if they want, I'd like my friends to be able to take their concealed handgun to their same-sex wedding) -- but I was in a field that is conservative to an astonishing degree.  The two things didn't mix well.  A case in point - I went to ridiculous lengths to conceal my real name from my drug-running, motorcycle riding, club-hopping lover of the time because I was (rightly) worried that it could make problems with my security clearance if anyone found out (by the way, my nickname from back then still sticks, to the confusion of many).  Living a double life like that is a strain, even for someone who had done their share of undercover work.

And then there was the job stress.  I was carrying two pagers, from two different companies, because it was so critical that I be reachable 24 hours a day.  At one point, I worked for over a month without a day off.  I've always been able to work pretty hard but that was too much.  I was falling apart physically and emotionally.

So I quit.  Completely.  And radically simplified my life.

A few months later the sum total of my possessions (that weren't in long term storage) fit into one mid-sized duffle bag and two motorcycle saddle bags.  I was sleeping in a different place pretty much every night and I never slept the same place three nights in a row.  I didn't have a job, a mailing address, or a home.  Hell, my life was so simple that I only had _one_ key.  I spent most of my time in San Francisco.  During the days I'd read in cafes, hang out wherever I'd spent the last night, or, if I was tired, I'd go to Golden Gate Park and take a nap.  At night, I'd be at some nightclub either dancing or seeing a band.  I picked up odd jobs, mostly as a roustabout in clubs.  After a while I started working as a DJ and later did some nightclub promoting.  Back then I drank a _lot_ and there were plenty of mornings when I'd wake up not knowing exactly where I was or how I got there.  That I didn't die in a motorcycle crash can only be marked up to a long run of very good luck (near the end I did crash, but I got away easy with just a few torn muscles in my back, a DUI charge, and a busted-up motorcycle).

At the time, I knew exactly what was wrong with me -- I didn't have any idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life; there was nothing that I was striving for or even trying to accomplish (other than getting enough money to keep me in food, booze and smokes).

In retrospect I've come to believe that along with that, I also was experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  It seems very strange and self-indulgent to be saying that.  After  all, I wasn't in a war and, though there was plenty of stress in my previous career, nothing happened to me that was a fraction as bad as what is happening daily in Iraq.  But, in a large part as a result of talking with a friend who was in Vietnam and who suffered a pretty severe case of PTSD, over the past two years I've started to think that, despite there being (as it seems to me) no good reason for it, that was part of what I was experiencing back then.  (As a side note, it is interesting that my friend will tell anyone who asks that _nothing_ terribly bad happened to him either.)  Whether it is reasonable or justified, I see now that I had all the symptoms associated with PTSD.

Regardless of the details, my state of mind and lifestyle was not one that would have been survivable in the long term.  Thankfully I got tired of the nightclub business about the same time that an old employee of mine got in touch because he was opening a motorcycle repair shop.  He was a good mechanic but he knew that he wasn't well suited to run the office and customer service side of a business.  So he asked me to take over that part.  As he put it, "I saw how you used to deal with people when you carried a gun.  If you could put up with them, you'll be able to put up with customers.  And the best part is . . . no one dies if you make a mistake."  For two years I managed the shop and discovered that I really loved running a small business and helping customers.  But, I also discovered that I worked harder than the owner and started to resent it.  Also, all the same problems were still bugging me.  I didn't feel like I was doing anything with my life and I was very depressed most of the time.  In fact, the depression was getting progressively worse as relations between me and the owner of the shop were going downhill.

Finally I decided that, if I was going to keep on walking around, I had to do something that I cared about.  Opening my own business seemed one of the best choices -- though heading out to Prague and DJ-ing was also a strong contender.  At the very least, if I owned my own business I'd have somewhere to sleep every night (after three years, homelessness was wearing on me and it didn't help with the depression).  So I thought about it for a long time and decided that there was room in SF for a used bookstore that specialized in science fiction, fantasy and horror.  I figured that I could run it by myself, stock it initially with my own books, and make ends meet (significantly aided by my rent-free, motorcycle-riding, Top Ramen-eating lifestyle).

Well, it didn't quite work out that way but it came close.  The space was bigger than I had planned (with equally higher rent), I didn't have enough books to fill it so I bought quite a few from another bookseller who had too many, and it was very quickly obvious that I wouldn't be able to make it work with only used books so I added selected new books as well.  But over all it worked out well.  The space was great.  My landlord never asked if I was living there and I didn't tell him.

For those of you who remember the old store at 534 Laguna Street, it was a warren of small rooms -- three total.  But what most people never saw were the other three rooms.  One was my office by day and at night the couch folded out, the back room concealed a relatively complete kitchen, and there was a full bath in the final room (I still miss the tub there -- it was a huge claw foot and had probably been installed when the building was built in the 19th century).  I had blinds in the front windows and at the end of the day I'd close them.  Well-meaning customers would always point out that I should leave them open so people could see the window displays when the shop was closed.  I just used to smile and think how window shoppers would react to see me wandering around the shop in my bathrobe!

Everything went well for three years.  Business grew steadily and after a year or so I was able to hire Jeremy Lassen to help out around the shop.  That was a huge relief.  From the day that I opened until I hired Jeremy I had worked six days a week, every week except for a few extra days off around Christmas (but it evened out -- the month before Christmas I stayed open seven days a week.  I'd been working 28 days straight by the time the holiday rolled around).

Then three things happened all at the same time - my lease ran out, the dot-com boom got going, and I found out what a bastard my landlord was.  See, I had a second option on my lease for another three years at the same rent.  In December I told my landlord that I wanted to take the option.  He said fine and I forgot about it.  Then the lease ran out in April and he raised the rent.  I mentioned the option and he pointed out that the lease said that I had to ask for it in writing and I had to do so before the first lease ran out.  I told him that I'd talked to him about it in December.  He shrugged.

I wanted to kill him.  Instead I panicked and told all my friends that I was looking for a new space.  And shortly thereafter my mom, bless her, found an ad for the business that was selling-out in our current location at 866 Valencia.

The saga of moving the store has been discussed elsewhere and I'll not repeat it here.  One epilogue that bears mentioning though -- my old landlord did very well during the dot-com boom.  At his height he owned over 20 buildings in San Francisco.  But . . . so far as I've been able to find out, when the crash hit he lost everything.

I should feel bad for him but I don't.

One catch about the new location was that it really wasn't very well set up as a place to live.  But I'm nothing if not flexible and (on good days) imaginative.  Nowadays people sometimes comment on what a nice stock room we have.  It used to be a bit more than that.  In the back room at Borderlands is a closet. If you move the brooms and ladder you might notice the shower head, the fiberglass walls and the drain in the floor  . . . the loft where we now store boxes of used books is almost the exact dimensions of a queen size bed . . . and a bookstore doesn't really need a two-compartment sink in the back room . . . I think you get the picture.  It's been a long time since I've lived at the shop but if, years ago, you ever saw a grey shape flitting around in the back of the store late at night -- it wasn't a ghost.

I had never figured out a good way to install a toilet in the back room.

It's about time to end this tell-all account.  It's ten years later and I'm not the person who opened Borderlands.  I'm hardly ever depressed now and when I am, there's a reason and it passes very quickly.  I don't have nightmares anymore and my drinking is very reasonable (hell, I don't have _time_ for hangovers).  I wouldn't say that book-selling and Borderlands saved my life -- how could I know that?  But I know that I'm happier than I've ever been in my life and I'm very, very proud of what I've been able to build with the kindness and support of my friends (Jet, Bill, Valorie, Jhene, Rain, Hannah, AC, Molly, Tia, Jeremy, Liza, Jason, Loren, Claud, Mikael, Scott, Amanda, Thorn, Cary, Lisa, Heather, Francis, Maddy, Scott, and Ben), my family (Joe, Alexandra, Darran, Steven, Jim, James, Devany and most of all, Valerie and Jude, the two pillars that hold up my world), and you -- my customers.  Thank you all.

Notes from a DVD Geek

by Jeremy Lassen

Hello everyone. I recently got back from the San Diego Comicon, where I saw all kinds of crazy stuff, including amputee booth models, and way too much CosPlay to contemplate.  Because of this recent over-exposure to all things anime, I feel compelled to tell you about some anime that has made its way to the Borderlands DVD shelves.

First up is "Burst Angel".  This just-released genre-bender mixes sci-fi, action, comedy, and a touch of spaghetti Western into an over-the-top girls-with-guns confection.  The first two volumes/8 episodes of this one are on DVD now.

Another strange anime series that has been getting talked up is the noir/sf series “The Big O”;  (no, the title is not referring to what you think its referring to).  It’s about a futuristic city with 40’s retro styling, whose entire population has lost their memories.  The city is ruled by the police force, and there are giant robots that kind of sit around and don’t really do much.  The title refers to said giant robots.  Think of this as a weird mix of "Dark City" and "Batman The Animated Series," without Batman.  It’s interesting stuff that was apparently shown on the Cartoon Network.  But who has time for cable?  There are now two giant 4-dvd sets available, each containing a 13-episode season.  This is exactly the kind of weird mix of styles and genres that anime does really well.