The Bay Area has always punched above its weight in writers — and naturally, that means the bookstores here are something special. We asked our favorite local authors which shops they frequent. We wanted the hidden gems, the neighborhood staples, the places that feel personal, build community, and keep the local literary scene alive.
Robin Sloan (opens in new tab) picks Green Apple Books
Long before Sloan wrote his 2012 bestseller “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (opens in new tab),” he would wander the rambly stacks of Green Apple’s Clement Street location, dreaming of adding his own book to the shelves one day. “I would slink in just before closing to prowl the new paperback releases up front and imagine my name among them,” he said. Sloan thinks of it as a place for possibility, densely packed with new and used titles that reward the wandering reader. “A great bookstore is a dream machine, and Green Apple might just be the dreamiest.” Green Apple’s Inner Sunset location is delightful too, but Sloan prefers the original because it has more of everything: space, books, wonder.
Green Apple Books (opens in new tab), 506 Clement St.
Alexis Madrigal (opens in new tab)picks East Bay Booksellers
East Bay Booksellers has been through a lot since opening in 1989, including a fire that shuttered the original shop in 2024. It has reopened just half a mile away, losing none of its magic. “It matches my freak. I’d follow their buyers anywhere they want to go,” said Alexis Madrigal, host of KQED’s “Forum” and author of “The Pacific Circuit (opens in new tab),” which examines Silicon Valley’s rise through the lens of Oakland. Madrigal loves the shelves filled with “weird novels in translation, magazines about compost — physical and spiritual), a perfect slice of new academic books, strange imports from presses no one has ever heard of, a massive reprint box set of every publication the radical designers Archigram ever put out.” Basically, everything.
East Bay Booksellers (opens in new tab), 6022 College Ave., Oakland
Amy Tan (opens in new tab) picks Book Passage
Tan may be forever associated with San Francisco’s Chinatown because of her bestselling book “The Joy Luck Club (opens in new tab),” which became a hit movie that shaped how the world understands the Chinese community in the U.S. Nowadays, she lives across the Golden Gate Bridge, in Marin, where her favorite bookstore is Book Passage in Corte Madera. She frequently drops in to sign books, pick up orders, and sit with a chai latte, catching up with owner Elaine Petrocelli. What keeps her coming back is the programming: a steady stream of author events that draw fans from well beyond Marin. “Book Passage has the best author events, both live and virtual, at the store or at larger venues,” she said…