One of the great things about living in San Francisco is that there are many excellent independent bookstores. Given that today was the day that the first two Haikasoru titles shipped to stores, we decided to celebrate by hanging out at Borderlands Books, one of the best bookstores in the city and one of the best specialty shops for science fiction, gmail login fantasy, and horror in the whole country. We popped in a bit early and waited for the books to arrive.

Here's Masumi scoping out the state of the field amongst the well-stocked stacks of Borderlands.

Borderlands is a not just a great local store, but a national institution. When I moved here from the East Coast, Borderlands was my first stop. Before groceries. Before anything.

See? Postcards! Mail 'em to your friends.

Locals know that one of the store's great attractions are its hairless cats, Ripley and Ash. Indeed, there's a sign put out on the register when the cats arrive, because some people come in just to check out the cats. Personally, they freak me out.

But Ash took a liking to VIZ editor Eric "I

Before the long, the moment had arrived!

Behold, The Lord of the Sands of Time!

And what should happen but that one of the customers was intrigued by these new selections!

They certainly aren't holding in their laughter because I asked them to hold up All You Need Is KILL for a contrived photo-op. It's the joy of finding a new book to read!

And here's the first person to EVER buy a Haikasoru title. (Well, the first person to buy one in front of me while I had a cellphone camera handy.)

If he looks smug, it's because he's awesome.

And now friends, go forth and CONSUME!

Coming soon: a Q/A with Seth, who bought the first book, and what he thought of it!