Kayo Books

great place to find the really unusual and esoteric. I’ve traveled the world and have never found anything like it.
Came in to browse and wound up dropping a hefty sum on an antique bondage painting done in 1930 that has to be seen to be believed. Saw it in a corner and was hooked.
It’s really weird and one of my friends who saw it said it kind of bothered him. Perfect!!! Exactly the kind of reaction I was hoping for. So I moved it to another wall in the house where it’s even more visible to people coming in!
It was a great find as I love collecting the esoteric.
Highly recommended for anybody who wants something cool and who gets tired of the generic retail stores in Union Square. It’s only a 10-​minute walk up Post st. from downtown San Francisco.

Best bookstore in the city. I could spend hours here. Its the existence of places like this that show that SF hasn’t entirely lost it’s soul… YET.
They specialize in paperback pulp but have a ton of other great old stuff too like comics and magazines and interesting hardbounds.

Kayo was my mom’s nickname in college. The vibrant cheerful sign caught my eye, piqued my interest and launched me into nostalgia before I even entered the door.
This is not your mothers bookstore.
The largest collection of pulp paperbacks and art I’ve ever seen, several floors of hand picked collectibles. Pulp fictions (the books not the film) were published from the late 1800’s into the 50’s, the cover art has a very distinctive look, and the titles and captions are often hilarious. The place has that strong intoxicating smell of decomposing ink on wood pulp so widely identifiable it’s worthy of a Little Tree Air Freshener. The store is clean, orderly, quiet and well lit. A pleasant afternoon can be spent perusing and chatting with the friendly knowledgeable staff who can steer you towards some amusing gems.
They even have a section organized by first names found in the title. I bought one containing my friends name with a particularly epic pulp cover and shadowbox framed it for her birthday… it looked pretty sweet.

Wish there were six stars.
Kayo Books would get them.
A true San Francisco treasure.
I really need to get there more often, though.
As of now, I only make it there when I start missing my friends Bond, Marlowe, Spade, or McGee.
The problem is that I only venture out of my Daly City diggs and downtown to hit the library, and when that happens I always have too many library books to make the trek up there.
I need to get my shit together.
Beautiful Beatrice is a lucky one.

This isn’t the best bookstore in the city. It’s the best bookstore in the universe!
Beware: Kayo isn’t your run-​of-​the-​mill bookstore. It’s stuffed full of comics, pulp, sci-​fi, and vintage sleaze. I easily spend hours browsing through the hilarious soft-​core smut every time I visit.
Don’t call me Pervert. Call me Friend, Man Fan, Coworker, Neighbor, Dad. On second thought, don’t call me Dad. K thx bye!
The books I enjoy skimming through are the hard-​boiled classics, sensational gossip rags, and the corny PG-​13-​rated vintage sleaze. Titles such as: Sexplosion, The Finger Man, Kiss Me Deadly, Kiss My Fist, Flesh Hammer, Dykes on Bikes, Sex Fury, and so on.
The high brow fiction section is small. Hop on the 38 bus to Green Apple Books for your Toni Morrisons and F. Scott Fitzgeralds and your boring squareness.
Keep in mind: Kayo Books is only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday until 6pm.

I don’t even WANNA know what was on the fingers of the people who flipped through the pages of these books decades ago. Kayo Books is dedicated to paperbacks. Specifically, pulp fiction. Like detective novels, smut, and mysteries. Oh, and pulp magazines, vintage erotica, original illustration artwork, photographs, comics and comix. Even if you have never read such books before you would probably be familiar with them as their front covers have become immortalized in pop culture with calendars, postcards and actual posters dedicated to their visual allure (many of these books were not to be read for plot lines so don’t expect some masterpiece writing in some of them).
When you walk in you are greeted by a very sweet black lab who wants kisses. You can step down into an adjoining room with more shelves of paperbacks. You can find old magazines too. There is also an upstairs area with more materials. The building that houses Kayo Books is old with lots of charm. The prices on the vintage paperbacks run from $ 5-​$ 8 which is what a new paperback would cost with less charm.
I ended up picking up a stack of books that included Rex Stout’s stuff. But what I really want to do is come back here on my next visit to SF and spend hours. No lie. I can’t imagine the gem of stuff I would find. I freaking LOVE this place. Thank you Kayo Books for existing.

A friend who has lived a block away from this store told me about Kayo a decade ago and I’ve been pillaging their pulp sci-​fi stock (in bulk) once or twice a year ever since.
They have always had a broad representation of authors, with plenty of the Asimov, Clarke Heinlein-​grade «grand masters» as well as major pulp-​era titles/​authors like Murray Leinster, Lester Del Rey, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Poul Anderson, H. Rider Haggard, EE «Doc» Smith, etc., that established the genre before Star Wars helped bring science fiction into the mainstream. This is not a place I would come for the latest vampire books or Star Wars/​Star Trek junk novels even though they’re what I would consider the modern incarnation of «pulp» publishing. It’s not that kind of place. It’s better because most of the stock is rarer and older, without being expensive. I get the feeling that the non-​science fiction titles are the same way, but YMMV.
The staff is extraordinarily cool and courteous. Their open days/​hours are limited, but with the onslaught of internet book search sites, I’m UNBELIEVABLY GRATEFUL they remain as a «brick and mortar» business. I can go spend $ 40 there ($ 2 or $ 3 per title) in one chunk and never have a bullshit $ 4 shipping charge for a «media mail» 14-​day delivery time that cost the sender $ 0.75.
I honestly don’t know what I’d do without them, so go visit and buy stuff from them so I can keep doing the same!

Just an amazing bookstore. A great selection of mysteries, pulp and science fiction that I browse through and always find interesting stuff. Because of the hours the store is open I usually go at lunch time but ten it turns into a long lunch because I stay too long to browse.
The main room has mysteries, pulp, old porn novels, graphic novels and media tie in works. There’s a side room with more old porn novels in various catagories, non-​fiction and non genre fiction. Upstairs has a wall of science fiction, more mysteries, westerns and more non-​fiction. At first I wasn’t that thrilled with the science fiction selection but came to realize it’s not the place to go if you’re looking for the newer stuff used. You won’t find that here, go to Borderlands for that. The sci-​fi books here are 20 years old and older. It’s find to get interested in an older author, come here, and realize there’s a stash of books by that author you hadn’t noticed before.
My only problem with the store is it’s open only 3 days a week, 11 to 6 so I can’t get to it as often as I would like but the owners run the store as a hobby so I can’t get down on them for that.

I love this bookstore so much! I could spend half my day browsing through the odd collection of pulp. And I’ve never picked up a book and said, «I like it but it’s too expensive». Everything is very reasonably priced!
This book store is one of the reasons I love this city.

Shatangi used to live right by Kayo. They have a ridonculous selection of books that bring back memories and spark the imagination. Old classics to pulp wonders. Enjoy!
Shatangi told you…

Kayo Books is my favorite bookstore in the whole city. Ron Blum is an incredible resource to have in this town. Excellent selection of vintage paperbacks (as well as some hardcovers, magazines and comic books). Stock is in very good shape and reasonably priced.

Kayo is the most bizarre and unique bookstore I have ever chanced upon.
Do not miss this.

Be sure to support your local brick and mortar book shops. Maria and Ron provide unmatched customer service. Be certain to check their web site for opening hours.
Their unique selection of rare and collectible paperbacks will have you browsing for hours.
Where else can you find «Marijuana Girl» by N. R. DeMexico — «She traded her body for drugs — and kicks» or «The Needle» by Sloane M. Britain — «Man or woman, sister or brother: her lust knew no bounds!»
My personal favorite is «Shopping Center Sex» by Oren A. Lang — «A novel that cuts to the corrupt heart of suburbia’s most shocking scandal!»
You better hurry up before I buy all the good stuff.

There are few things in life that are more beautiful than symmetry, abundance, and nerdy pursuits. Kayo Books covers all three with perfection.
Impeccably categorized into the most detailed of genres are stacks of vintage paperback books. Most of them don’t seem that special, but when you look at the sheer volume, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
It kind of makes me want to lay down on the floor and take it all in for about 20 minutes. It would be therapeutic emergence.

«Is that a paperback book in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?»
Honestly, this is the image and verbage in the Unilocal photos of Kayo that got me to walk the extra 5 blocks to check this place out during my last visit to SF. I figured if that was the promo for this store, they would definitely have some smutty stuff up my alley. And sho nuff, they deeeed. I was able to score quite a few vintage paperbacks to add to the ever growing stack I was pooling together for the boy and all were fairly priced and in great condition. Definitely a store to hit if you are looking for some tasty weathered bookage!

When I’m hunting for particular out of print, obscure books, I get a buzz when I find one — an endorphin rush, or something like that. My heartbeat increases and I can feel my face growing warmer and my head growing somewhat lighter. I don’t know for sure, but I’d be willing to bet this is the case for many collectors (not that I’m a collector — I’m just a weirdo). Wait, many collectors ARE weirdos! Does that make me a collector? No.
I had a list of more than a dozen books, and had planned a little bookstore tour of town a couple weeks ago. I expected the tour to yield a couple paperbacks, but I’d never been to Kayo before, and it was first on my list. Once I figured out the sci fi section was upstairs, I discovered they had all but one of the titles I was after. Not getting greedy, and because I wanted an excuse to come back, I grabbed three and returned downstairs with what I was told was a stoned, happy look on my face.
It’s my new favorite bookstore in SF, with Borderlands a close second. Both are special, but Kayo has a certain «x factor.» This is a place to find truly arcane materials, all magazines and paperbacks. Lots of places have sci fi, mystery, and hard boiled crime books, and Kayo is no slouch in any of those departments, but I was most impressed by their selection of old smut novels. It’s a cornucopia of smut, organized into discrete sections like prostitution, catholic guilt, sex on the moon, etc. I wouldn’t even know where to begin reading in this area, so if you have any suggestions, let me know. I’m thinking along the lines of «deranged and kinky,» if that helps…
This place is only open from Thurs. through Sat. which to me only adds to the exclusivity and coolness of Kayo Books. Yes, I’m mythologizing a bit, but screw it. This is a rare and wonderful store.

Wow. An impressive collection of pulp paperbacks, comic books and obscure porn. There has to be somebody on your Christmas list, that uncle who’s a little bit off?, who would love something from this place?

I’ve always found interesting books here. The last time I visited, I was trying to find a mid-​50s paperback original by Robert Arthur (who created the kid’s detective team The Three Investigators), and I unbelievably found it after some hunting. Supercool.
Also, I always feel that the proprietor is afraid I’m going to shoplift. I’m not that skeevy, honest.

Amazing. AMAZING. This is one of my favorite places on earth. To me, there’s nothing better than the smell of old books — ESPECIALLY when they are 1940s-​70s books full of true crime, smut, pop culture and pulp fiction. I would spend hours upon hours in here when I lived in the neighborhood. And, the prices are pretty cheap! Most books are just a few bucks.
Anyone interested in the sleaze/​hardboiled/​depraved/​pulp genre of reading needs to stop in. One of the best things about San Francisco EVER.

This bookstore has one of the best collections in the city. It offers seedy literature that makes me horny. My only problem with the book store is I always end up browsing the crime isle and I never feel morally ok buying books from that isle… that is why I always bring a bag.
Please put a donation box near your entrance. It is not about the money… it is just about me maintaining an inner life without contradictions. I will happily donate regularly, once it is offered.
Besos.

You could totally go to Kayo Books to buy a book wherein a woman shoots a man and then if a woman just COINCIDENTALLY shot you, it would be like:
Sgt. Lou Buddz: Well Farraday, you get anything from the crime scene?
Det. Farraday: The poor sucker who got killed did have a book on him. But it’s still a Stone Whodunnit.
(Farraday holds up an old paperback book with a lurid cover in which a pretty lady in dramatic eye make-​up has a poor sucker set up Hook, Line and Sinker)
[[SF/​X– Harlem Nocturne by The Viscounts]]
You buy gritty old paperbacks and magazines here. Many pulp treasures. Much of it exploitive and salacious!!! The place is clean and well-​organized. Why is it every time I’m in a cool place like this where I can easily find things that I want, I must always race with The Devil for the bathroom?
Also, old paper smells GOOD!