Wired.com presents the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy. And here is your host, David Barr-Kirtley.

Hello and welcome to episode 144 of Geek's Guide to the Galaxy.

Today on the show we'll be discussing science fiction bookstores and I'm joined by two guests.

So first up we've got Alan Beets, founder of Borderland's books in San Francisco.

Prior to opening the store he worked at numerous jobs including bodyguard, firearms

instructor, DJ and nightclub promoter Promoter, and Motorcycle Repair Shop Manager.

In 2008, he in Borderland's books General Manager Jude Feldman were nominated for a World Fantasy

Award in the category of Special Award Professional. So Alan, welcome to the show.

Thank you, David.

And also joining us today is C.C. James, co-founder of the Singularity and Company bookstore in Brooklyn.

She's also a musician, cos-player, and hardcore Star Trek fan,

and is one of the organizers of the Save the Sci-Fi crowdfunding campaign

dedicated to rescuing classic Pulp novels from obscurity.

So C. C. C. C. Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Okay, and so I'd like to start out and just talk a bit about everyone's background

to science fiction readers.

So let's start off with Alan and have you just tell us a bit about how you got interested

in reading science fiction.

You know, I'm not sure I can remember the sort of seminal moment. My grandfather did some writing for

fantasy and science fiction magazine and my mother had a subscription to it and

so I remember starting off by looking at the covers and going,

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