Chronicle Books

Neat bookstore with a unique selection of gift books, journals, and stationary. Prices are what you’d expect for a boutique style shop, but not outrageous! Neat place :)

A wonderful little book store with a narrow, but fun selection of readable books. There’s a great children’s section, stationary, Moleskin notebooks and fun local books to make your coffee table look like you know something about San Francisco, even though you’ve probably never been to Coit Tower… and yet you’ve lived here your entire life.

I’ve been to this bookstore a number of times but it only takes one terrible experience to make you never want to go there again. I went in looking for a children’s book and got horrendous customer service from Elaine, the gal working the register. Not only did she clearly not want to help me, she was sarcastic and beyond rude — she didn’t even look at me when I was talking to her! There are too many great book shops in the city to waste your breath dealing with angry people like Elaine.

This place is AWESOME.
I spent a good 2 hours wandering around the shelves here. They have all the cool, trendy, and quirky edition of books congregated here. Covering ranges of topics from fashion and architecture, to bike snob sport books and geek book chronicles, to foodie spotting guides and travelers’ illustrative walking tour flashcards, even poetry books written by your cats. Hey, not your average bookstore where you’d find Oscar Wilde’s but definitely makes for the most interesting experience.
They have just about everything and anything to make for an unique bookstore visit.

The store was empty when I walked in, but still no acknowledgement from the guy working. That’s a pet peeve of mine, but I still looked around. Cool bookstore with a nice assortment of books.

Such a great local bookstore!

Chronicle Books is a pretty cool little brick and mortar shop on 4^th for the online, independent publisher. They have a fairly limited selection of books, but they specialize in their own titles — pop culture, humor, travel, food, children’s books, etc. They don’t really sell much, if any, adult fiction.
A good place to buy a gift book for that person who doesn’t really read books.
The store is well-​organized, clean, and inviting. The staff — not so friendly…

Mon avis est un peu mitigé sur ce Chronicle Books.
Côté pile: je né peux que soutenir cet éditeur local et indépendant, dont les livres semblent être plutôt qualitatifs.
Côté face: cette boutique en particulier manqué cruellement de choix et SURTOUT le vendeur né montre absolument aucune passion, voire même aucune politesse, ce qui est bien dommage et plutôt rare aux Etats-​Unis…
Au final, j’y ai trouvé de très chouettes livres pour enfants, et c’est bien ce que je cherchais. Mais je né sais pas, ça m’a presque attristée, ce vendeur morose derrière son comptoir et ce grand espace façon showroom mais sans grand choix. Je recommande quand même, mais peut mieux faire ! :)

Bought some cocktail books as gifts from this bookstore and my friend couldn’t have been any happier with what he got. Interesting and edgy collection, like specially curated for my taste.

I’ve walked past this store many times, it’s always caught my eye, but I’ve always had somewhere to be so never stopped in until today. I’m in a list making sort of mood tonight, so here’s my review in beautiful bullet form:
— It’s a great spot for meeting up with friends (on the way to somewhere else)
— Chronicle Books is actually a publisher and all items in the store are published by them. This is a neat idea, I’ve never seen a store like this before, and now I can hope that First Second will open one too. :)
— In the clerk’s own words, they publish mostly coffee table style books …
— … but the store also dedicated half a wall to kids’ books, including a little kid-​friendly nook with a padded bench.
— They had a section of bike-​themed books. Oh how well they know their clientele…
— Sadly, they were out of Bay Area Bike Rides decks. Dangit, I want one.
— The cost of living in SF may have skewed what I think of as reasonable, but the costs of the books were surprisingly low.
What are the negatives? Well, they are what they are — a publisher of low-​attention span books. They are not a replacement for Barnes and Noble or Books Inc. If you’re looking for a classic or the latest werehedgehog romance novel (I am not joking, this really exists), you’re not going to find it here.
If you want something fun to flip through, or something cute to give as a gift, then go check’em out and then drop in at Fresh Roll next door for some delicious lemongrass pork.

Looking to kill some time? Looking to see neat things?
This is your place.
Not a typical book store stuffed to the brim with books. Everything is strategically placed, not overwhelming, and seems to just… fit.
From trinkets to travel to cook books to you suck books, this place has something for everyone as well as something for everyone you might need a last minute gift for.

Um… Does this store have a point?
I pass by this place on my way to and from work. Had some extra time tonight and decided to stop in. I was very excited at the prospect of getting a new book. Since Borders died, getting books has been tricky.
This so called book store was about as useful as a fork when you’re trying to drink soup. It has a bunch of cook books and novelty coffee table type books. Nothing that anyone would actually read.
Fuck that.

i was sadly disappointed. i can’t believe i jay walked across busy san francisco streets for it.
i guess i should have looked it up first before coming in. from across the street it looked promising! i like walking into book stores and browsing to see what they’ve got. this book store is comparable to most book sections at your local urban outfitters. it has a nice collection of coffee table books that are likely to strike up a conversation. come on in if that’s what you are looking for. from your hobbies and crafts to your random fancies.
i was hoping for more. until next time.
cheers!

I love curated book shops and was shocked that I hadn’t found this before. Overall, the space is gorgeous, though it feels like there should be a larger fraction of it filled with books. The selection could be described as «stuff young people in San Francisco would like» — food, drink, arts, crafts, design, humor. I saw many books I already owned and found something I hadn’t seen before that I clearly needed. In addition to books, there is also a great selection of journals.
I hope they add some more shelves and expand their collection.

Love their books but the staff could be improved…
Came in to inquire about the date of their next warehouse sale, and was treated fairly rudely by the two clerks at the register (one male, one female).

Y’know how you get invited to a birthday party where you only know the guest who invited you, and you feel like you better not come empty-​handed… even though you don’t know who the hell the birthday person is? It must be the guilt-​ridden, protocol-​clinging Japanese in me, but I think the good old-​fashioned «omiyage» (Japanese for «gift») is a must-​buy, don’t ya think? After all, I have to give a present, meticulously wrapped of course, or I lose face. And trust me, I have a lot of face to lose. So where do I go to find the perfect omiyage for someone I never met? Chronicle Books, of course. You can always count on finding a diverse collection of inoffensive books on the most trivial topics packed with lots of eye-​catching photos and graphics.
Don’t get me wrong. I love getting an inoffensive book about a trivial topic like, say, the history of Airstream trailers or a cupcake cookbook, with lots and lots of pictures. I can stack the handsome tomes nicely on the coffee table and make it look like I’m a real Renaissance man. But who would I be fooling? And who is Chronicle Books fooling by moving into their new posh space in the Metreon away from the chaotic foot traffic generated by the movie theaters and the new foot court? You actually have to make an effort to go outside to enter now, which I think is a shame because they’re probably losing all the passing, parasitic browsers like me killing time until the next movie start time. It’s a cool, West Elm-​looking space but a bit pointless in its stark design. I wish them luck with the new digs, but let’s face it… tick-​tock, tick-​tock.

Big bookstores are often overwhelming and many times I find myself leaving empty-​handed — due to my inability to commit to a book with so many choices around me.
Chronicle Books is different though. This darling sized location weeds through the wealth of books out there and hand-​picks a delightful few that are guaranteed to be a sure thing stocking stuffer and present please-​r.
It was so refreshing to find myself heading over to the mall the other day — to thumb through healthy vegan recipe books, rather than going crazy — trying on and buying clothes at the countless stores that surround this literary gem.
Trust.

Was so happy to be in Westfield today and see that Chronicle Books had a store!
I love their books: unique, fun, with a great sense of humor and style to make it perfect gifts or something for yourself.
I didn’t get it here, but I got friend and fellow Unilocaler, Jessie J. some gay sex deck cards made by Chronicle Books. So fabulous and one of the great gifts I’ve given.
If you are in the area, definitely a place to check out!

How do they do it? Do they read my mind?
Chronicle Books publishes and sells the sort of books that make me want to buy a closetful to wrap up and give as gifts all year long. And while they’re waiting to be gifted, who’s going to notice if they get a little dog-​eared from my having pored over them in bed at night?
Some combination of really good design, really creative titles, and a hit of je né sais quoi mean that Chronicle Books has stumbled into a truly winning formula. I’m at a loss for words to explain it, but I’d sort of love to have every single thing they publish. Meanwhile, what’s in this store is a good place to start.

I was excited to see a Chronicle Books store in the SF Shopping Centre! They have the cutest books, cookbooks, craftbooks and other DIY books anddddd most of my favorite bloggers are published by them! They even have the cutest kids books ever. The store is tiny but it’s fun to have easy access to the books instead of having to search for them in a chain bookstore. They also have these cute flash card type recipe cards and travel cards that are fun to have or give for gifts to your foodie/​travel/​wine-​o friends :)

I’m the idiot who stopped by here looking for a real bookstore and had to turn around when I found the equivalent of a pretty newsstand.
Chronicle Books does have some fun titles and I should have put 2-​and-​2 together that their store would only offer their published line. Still, I looked them up under bookstores, saw the 4+ star rating and headed over without stopping to think that it might just be a stand.
Oh well. Borders, here I come.