Best Book Group

Gay Men's Book Group at Borderlands Books

866 Valencia (at 19th Street), 824-8203, www.borderlands-books.com

Book clubs rarely raise an eyebrow for having distinctive subjects or uncommon demographics. Some have obvious intellectual pursuits, but most appear to be women's groups gathered to read contemporary fiction. Then we learned of the Gay Men's Book Group, which meets monthly at Borderlands Books (contact Christopher at cobalt555@earthlink.net). The Mission District shop specializes in the horror, science fiction, and fantasy genres that are also the club's focus. The group's mere existence defies conventional thinking about gay men's taste in literature (and the meetings draw an unstereotypical crowd), but these guys take it further by pushing the boundaries with their book selections. We're not talking about Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-type timidity here: April's choice was 1994's Terminal Café by Ian McDonald, a novel about the consequences of having the capabilities to resurrect the dead.