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Category: Bookstores [Edit]
Neighborhoods: Nob Hill, North Beach/Telegraph HillMon-Sun. 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m.
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A San Francisco literary landmark, City Lights makes me want to be a beatnik. I would wear so many turtlenecks and grow a goatee so thick and sharp the establishment would be struck with the fear of Ginsburg! City Lights also reminds me of the bookstores my mother used to drag me to as a young boy and leave me in the children's section while she did some research for whatever it was she was researching . . . probably psychology.
History and relation withstanding this bookstore is worth going into because of the rare and alternative books sold as well as some mainstream classics and interesting new releases. The employees are very helpful are willig to order things for you.
If City Lights Bookstore ever closes a part of San Francsico will die.
I could kick myself in the head for not coming here enough! ( it's hard. I just tried.)
Trip to City lights bookstore fallowed by a cafe stop. Sounds kinda perfect, doesn't it?
Greatest. Bookstore. Ever.
When i die, sprinkle my ashes in the poetry room. I make a trip here every time i am in the Bay Area, and am always reminded why i love this store so much. So many books you can't find at your local bookstorecoffeeslingingdvdpedalingmegachains. You can't get a latte here, but you won't care(go get one at Caffe Greco). I'm so glad this place has survived through the decades. It's equal parts history and badass bookstore.
Cheers to you City Lights, may you survive the Kindle.
I want to live in and be the mayor of this bookstore. It's fantastic!
There isn't much more to say than that. Every English major, poetry reader, word absorber, linguistic and bibliophile will be happy here. I was :)
I'd like to spend the night here someday, but they'd kick me out. I feel so comfortable here and I tend to spend a lot of hours just looking at covers and titles and synopses, and eventually come out with a treasure or two. Damn this place, they'll take away a chunk of my savings! in exchange for some treasures!
Attention All Book Worms, this is where all library hours should be spent, that's if you live in San Fran of course. This famous, independent and nostalgic bookstore will make you want to stop time, turn off the cell phone and indulge in the museum like selection of endless literary art, culture, politics and history.
We were there for about an hour and bought a book. I want to say the book found me, not me it. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this store, which we had something like it in Miami.
This bookstore has a very special place in my heart. Whenever I visit I always have to make this one of my stops and i inevitably will walk out with a bag of cherished treasures. For blessed gems full of poetry, beat literature and liberal politics this is one of my all-time favorite places to browse.
I have been coming here my entire life. Literally. My dad used to give me a twenty, drop me off in one of the cute plastic toddler chairs in the children's section downstairs and go drinking across the street at Tosca. City Lights was my babysitter, and a damn fine one.
As I got older, I learned to appreciate its grass roots origins, eclectic stock and amazing poetry room. The staff have always been knowledgeable and helpful, and Ive never seen one person in 27 years get harrassed for flipping through periodicals, or straight up reading books for hours on end. This bookstore embodies what I love most about this city.
I hope that I can leave my children here someday. Just kidding.
Though it maybe a very cramped bookstore it's still packed with a lot of good information and books. It has a lot of history because as I walk in I felt the atmosphere and how everything in the past came to life. Most of the books where from the beat movement and have large variety in this genre. It is not usually very busy and it is good considering the fact that it is a small space. Once in the while there are poetry nights and brings in a good crowd. It maybe far from USF but it is worth trip.
A great bookstore with a lot of history. The selection of books is all about quality and not quantity.
I noted that some uncomformist rebel slipped a few copies of The Economist into the magazine rack which, I have to imagine, would cause the owners of the store to break out in hives or worse if they discovered this fact. Let's just say that The Economist doesn't always tilt in one direction politically whereas everything else in the rack does. Unfortunately, diversity of thought isn't always celebrated in all corners.
But still, this is a fine, fine bookstore which should be visited for its history and excellent selection of books.
Even though I hate a lot of the tourist traps up at North Beach, City Lights still hangs in there as a bookstore that isn't spewing over with displays of the latest Dean Koontz whatever novel.
Browse the selection and sit in the upstairs poetry room, the ambient light and atmosphere are just right. If you get a chance, grab a copy of "Her", by Ferlinghetti. You won't be left unsatisfied.
This is my favorite bookstore in California. It has history and all the right elements that a great book store should have. The lighting, decor, even the smells are something that have stuck into memory with me ever since my first visit here back in 1997. City Lights has been a "must" on pretty much every trip I have taken from LA to SF in my life and I'm sure will continue to be the same. I hope it never changes because they have a customer for life right here.
4 stars for the history, culture, and crazy cool beatnik space that is the monument of City Lights.
Unfortunately, I can't give a 5th star. I had 2 friends visiting from Italy who were ecstatic about going to City Lights. One of them had a question about City Light's Publications, and when she spoke to the book clerk, he was rude, cold, and couldn't be bothered. Together my friends spent about $150, but I guess common courtesy and customer service is scorned when you're an elitist book clerk.
Having worked at an independent Bay Area bookstore for over 10 years, and now a current resident of North Beach, I was, to say the least, disappointed.
Just my luck. come to SF for a week and every day it is sunny and beautiful. I had counted on at least one rainy windy day so we could camp out at City Lights. Oh well maybe next time. I would give it 4 1/2 stars if I could. Only negative is the lack of chairs. Maybe there is a reason for that.. to keep guys like me from spending too much time engrossed in a good book.
Love City Lights. I could spend a weekend in the store, but they'd probably call the police to have me thrown out. I always leave with an handful of books that I'd somehow overlooked before, books that the chain bookstores don't/won't carry beyond their new release windows. This time I left with "San Francisco Noir," an anthology; Pete Dexter's "Train"; Andre Dubus III's "Bluesman"; and Jonathan Lethem's "Gun, With Occasional Music." Yeah, there's a theme here. Had another four or five in my hand, but knew that I didn't have room in my luggage.
Resolution: a pilgrimage to City Lights every 6 months!
I want to give City Lights a five-star review but my cynicism won't let me. Maybe my current reading list is to blame for this state of things: I just finished reading some stories by the deeply and sincerely ambivalent David Foster Wallace and I am currently reading HELLO, I'M SPECIAL: HOW INDIVIDUALITY BECAME THE NEW CONFORMITY by Hal Niedzviecki (published and purchased at City Lights). So, basically, I have trouble believing right now that I am not being marketed to and manipulated in some complex and insidious manner by everyone, including a place like City Lights.
I really, really want to believe that this bookstore, founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti has not sold out in the fix or six decades since it was founded, whatever selling out actually means, and that's certainly a relativistic concept. I've been a Kerouac admirer since I read ON THE ROAD back in, what, middle school & like pretty much everyone else, went through that phase where I wanted to be him, including making a trek on Rt. 66 and many terrible attempts at emulating his writing style. (This hero worship even continued for a period of time after I realized he was an alcoholic who alienated all of his friends in his miserable later years.) (I should also note that even someone as talented as Alan Moore, in LoeG: THE BLACK DOSSIER, has failed to do good Kerouac.)
I don't think that makes me special--the Beats, after all, have become a commoditized form of alternative culture over the years, a pre-packaged form of individuality to emulate. Walking through the bookstore, probably the best I have ever visited in terms of stocking volumes which appeal to my personal tastes, I want very much to believe that City Lights is still for real. BUT... The official merchandise behind the counter gives me pause. The self-mythologization of the the location gives me pause. (To be fair, was this mythology something the Beats actively sought? Or something which was thrust upon them and which they readily embraced?) The uniform non-conformity of my fellow patrons gives me pause.
Overall, City Lights is an amazing bookstore. Its just my misguided quest for true authenticity that keeps me from giving it a perfect write-up.
It's not quite Shakespeare & Co., (but what is). City Lights is, nonetheless, a great bookstore and a treasure in SF. Poetry room is a joy to just hang-out in. Staff selections are excellent. It's not a huge bookstore, but everything is reasonably well-organized and the selection is excellent.
This review, fair warning, is going to get a bit explicit and cranky. A lot like a horny pregnant woman without pickle wasabi ice cream. Which is something I never thought I'd compare myself to.
So, as it was, Jack Kerouac Alley terminates in a dead end somewhere in the endless fuckery that is Chinatown. It's Chinatown, kid. It's all endless fuckery. However, it's quite fitting that Kerouac is a dead end, because that's what reading him is like. A dead end. He's not just an overrated writer. He's not just a bad writer. He's not even a godawful writer you sneer at on the shelves. He is a malevolent, vile, stealing-life-away-by-the-page word waster who's only intentions were to type randomly away with no regard and ruin the unwary minds of the easily programmed douchebag literati sheep. He's less than worthless. He's below irredeemable. He is a complete and thorough waste of time. I would rather paint grass and watch it grow as it dries than read Kerouac. Frankly, it's time better spent just jerking off. That's right, jerking off. Yanking the crank in a closed sexual circuit is preferable to reading anything goddamn Kerouac. At least then I know there's a mildly worthwhile conclusion. Mine own milky, discordant discharge carries within it's zygotic jing-yè more redeemable, and perhaps more literary aspects than anything that fuckwaste Kerouac clacked out onto his abused typewriter/notepads. Anything is better than On The Road or Dharma Bums or any of that obnoxiously strabismic word salad.
Me and Truman Capote are united on this, apparently. Though you keep Truman Capote the fuck away from my semen, you hear me? You hear me?!
Anyway. I don't have anything against Ferlinghetti and his vision of independent publishing and whatnot, so I'll give this place two stars, even if every time I'm there looking for something good it seems overpopulated by the hip-hippest of the hipsters.
I'm just hoping I'm around when public time travel is legitimized, so I can hunt down jiggity Jack alive himself and kick him in the nuts hard enough his scrotum explodes out his ears.
As far back as I can remember, I've had a major crush on books.
My parents took me to City Lights as a tot, let me run up and down the narrow steps, fawning over books that were out of my league. You mean a five year old can't read Heidegger? That crush got crushed.
As a child, I would enter small bookstores with the awe and reverence reserved for cathedrals, much like those nearby City Lights. It was there that I would worship the written word; a place to receive the sacrament of ink on paper at the altar of ideas, imagination, and information.
I continue to take communion at City Lights, though not as often as I would like. One day this week I am going to plunk myself down and get a giddy, schoolgirl crush on some unwieldy volume. Then, since I'm an adult now, I'm going to take it home with me ;)
The bookstore carries the name after the most beautiful movie in the history of cinema, but sadly, it is not even a reminder of the times passed by. Its spirit has been eaten up by the lack of an oldie setting, by the prosaic staff, and by vain attempts to imitate Europe right outside of it. Like the North Beach itself, this place does not pulsate with the "beat" anymore. Since this is a bookstore, after all, I gotta give it an OK. Always thumbs up for an ambiance filled with books.
The sign in the poetry room upstairs says "READ HERE NOW." It's the best room in the store. There's something about the layout of the room that encourages browsing without overwhelming you with selection. Just the good stuff, please, and if it's on the shelf, I can be sure it's probably good stuff.
There's an air of reverence here. It never changes for me, even through the numerous literary obsessions the place has ushered me into. The tiny rooms are inevitably cramped but not uncomfortably so; I always see others camping out for hours with their backs on the floor-to-ceiling shelves.
True to its roots, this place has signed copies of Ferlinghetti volumes next to the register (along with the ubiquitous "HOWL if you love City Lights" bumper stickers). They've definitely figured out how to turn a profit based on the history of the place, and I have to hand it to them--so many historical bookstores are forced to get by on donations or just go out of business.
Okay READ HERE NOW sign, you twisted my arm. I'm not one to go about making flagrant violations of the rules in a spot where you can feel the presence of literary revolutionaries. I've never incurred Kerouac's wrath, but I'm sure it's not pretty.
This bookstore is wonderful. It has so much wonderful history, both locally and on an international level. As an angsty teen (and even now) I come in and stock up on my beatnik poetry and literature...Or crazy leftist politics, or queer studies, or union history..Either way it's one of my favourite places to be on a rainy day, a sunny day, or any day of the week.
Books.
Books.
Books.
OMG, books!
I came in here slightly cynical, thinking that all I'd find would be tourists and elitist literature snobs. I was wrong. What I found was a little store jam packed with books. Fiction. Nonfiction. US, Europe, all corners of the globe. A whole room full of poetry. Signs that told you to sit down and read a book.
Whoa. This is sooo not Borders.
I could care less about the history of this place. It has books, and good books at that, and that's what matters. I love how there are funny/snarky staff recommendations next to some of the highlighted books. They're definitely very useful for gaging if a certain book would be a good fit for your personality and tastes.
I also like the books that they publish, which tend to have a liberal/social justice type of bent. I picked up a copy of 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border by Juan Felipe Herrera and it was so engrossing that I had to get myself out of the Poetry Room to go buy it. The price tag was a little steep, but I think it was worth it.
The only reason why I'm taking off a star is because, even though I didn't find any (obvious) literature snobs, I did come across a whole lot of tourists carrying gigantor DSLRs that they probably can't use very well. In a cramped store like this, you can't really have that many fat Ozzie tourists with big cameras running around squealing about Kerouac.
LOVE. If City Lights was a man I'd jump it and fall in love over and over again.
I felt like a nerdy college girl again when I read through the titles in the basement. From philosophy to travel narrative to film, I couldn't have been giddier. I can see why other reviews wrote that they always leave with an arm load of books, I seriously had to tell myself "no" and put books down..."you're only allowed two books today, make your choice."
If someone looked inside my brain and made a bookstore full of books I can love, City Lights is that place. Literature that I usually have to hunt for in other bookstores and at the library were displayed front and center making me smile as I kept thinking, "read it, read it, read it."
One of my all time favorite bookstores, but unless you live in the neighborhood, or work nearby; it is impossible to find street parking around here. That's why a bookstore like Powell's in Portland is so convenient. Green Apple on Clement in SF is also a great book store but with easier parking situation.
But, there is no place like City Lights Bookstore--it's magical. When I was attending Cal, my go-to non-academic bookstore was Cody's which shut down. Thank God City Lights is still around. We need more independent bookstores!
This review is long overdue.
I've read many a book at this legendary book store, and purchased a few that I probably wouldn't have been able to find elsewhere in the city.
Staff members are almost always friendly, polite, and helpful, and it's nice to see some of them pop into Vesuvio for a pint of beer after work once in a while.
I like how they have a section dedicated to European Fiction, a poetry room upstairs, and a large basement area where I stumbled upon Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
City Lights, thank you for letting me read the following books in your store over the years:
The Dim Light Bar Guide (Jack Yaghubian)
Heart of a Dog (Mikhail Boulgakov)
Thank You For Smoking (Christopher Buckley)
The Rape of Nanking (Iris Chang)
Against Empire (Michael Parenti)
The Crying of Lot 49 (Thomas Pynchon)
Play it as it lays (Joan Didion)
American Psycho (Brett Easton Ellis)
Beneath the Underdog (Charles Mingus)
Miles (Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe)
Merci beaucoup!
Time for me to head on over to Vesuvio for a drink! :)
After having been in this area for about 9 years...give or take a few years.... I finally ventured in here.
This place is very clean but it feels very cozy (maybe a touch too much). I kind of feel like I am raiding someone's private collection though...lol Architecture can't be beat. Selection is great though.
I have only taken 20 minutes to browse in here...so I'll have to come back, some day.
The poetry room is wonderful. It's the only place I've been to that has a good selection of Diane di Prima.
Also, besides being wonderfully historic, the general selection of literary magazines and books is pretty awesome. Definitely a destination.
Just given its history and importance in 20th century American literature alone this bookstore is a world treasure. Plus, there's an Anarchism section.
I loved sitting in the poetry room upstairs and reading poetry in the assortment of chairs up there. Despite getting criticized for my taste in poetry, it was a great place to relax and recharge the (metaphorical) batteries.
A hop skip and a jump away from Vesuvio, you'll find a beautiful selection of books at City Lights. This place is legendary, and goes on forever. I thought I had seen everything until I walked past another aisle and found a completely new floor full of books.
When I walk in, it feels like I'm stepping into my grandfathers study. A sense of comfort that overwhelms me.
Between the selection, the expertise you receive from the staff, and their recommendations, you simply can't leave empty handed.
You know when you walk into a place and you can feel the importance filtering into the air, and filling your person with history? That is exactly what City Lights feels like. City Lights feels like one of the things San Francisco is all about - renaissance, radicalism, change and acceptance. If you ever get the chance to drop in, make sure to do so otherwise you'll be missing out.
Living in Paris is quite nice, especially with the endless cultural amenities. From world class museums to grungy squats, from chic cafes to hidden dives: Paris rocks. Bookish Americans in Paris also need not worry. We are fortunate to have a wide selection of bookstores at our disposal- the most famous, of course, being Shakespeare and Co (en face de Notre Dame). Somehow....Its significance in literary history, the overpriced books, the great selection, the fact that they're actually sister stores and actually being in the 'city of lights' often makes me think of City Lights back home.
My favorite thing about it? Probably the great variety of books off academic presses. It's one of the few places in the city with this strong of a variety of the best of haute culture (how Parisian no?). Or maybe because it's right next to Chinatown, so I can do a walk- through after I'm done with dim-sum. Miss you City Lights. See you soon.
As a closet Beat-freak visiting SF for the first time, this was the first place I headed from the airport.
After half an hour of browsing (lovely, lovely second floor!) I asked a staff member if there was a bathroom and got the most annoyed 'no' of my life. After 20 minutes (and a second gathered stack of books) the same woman walked by and I started to ask her a totally different question but my third word was cut off with a "No, we don't have bathrooms" as she walked away from me. Call me crazy, but shouldn't bookstore employees be willing to tell customers where books are?
Out of the four employees I was around while I was there, exactly one didn't look or act like I'd kicked his dog. He was the one who just ignored me.
The books they stock don't come near to making up for the attitude.
I did buy some books- a fraction of what I'd planned on- but I would actually pay for the memory of shopping here to be erased and replaced with my previous fantasy of City Lights.
I don't allow myself to visit anymore.
Each time I do, I spend hours upon hours scoping out all the nooks and crannies reading and learning. I always leave with more than enough books to distract me from my required readings at CCSF for the rest of the semester. City Lights is a dangerous and mysterious time warp. I am always way too successful at finding amazing books to read when I'm here.
The shopkeepers are knowledgeable and helpful. The City Lights publishing company makes some great poetry compilations.
City Lights is my love and my addiction.
Here is a bookstore in a labyrinth. Perhaps it also has to do with the fact that i have such poor sense of direction , coupled with the fact that I cannot splinter my attention in a bookstore, that I get completely disoriented here .
The breathtaking selection cuts across so much in history..... every time I go there I feel a little like watching the Niagra Falls in the winter.
The store is like a mysterious, charming person, with so much to say who will keep you coming back .Yeah so the bookstore is like a person...! No ,I'm not high.
Besides the obvious history of this place, it really is a world class bookstore. I'd say it is the best non-used bookstore in the US.
Great selection of radical leftist books (finally, their Marxist section is bigger than the Anarchist one) and a great selection of modernist avant garde literature (dada, surrealism, symbolism and related stuff like that). . I don't know of another bookstore with such a incendiary combination!
Pretty much anything that is worth writing a book about is represented (and represented well) at City Lights.
This bookstore breaths soul and history. It was the first bookstore I ever entered in San Francisco and unfortunately, that's true for many others, including, at times, swarms of tourists (if it weren't for that fact, I'd give it a five star, though I recognize that I've done the same prior to living in the city myself and don't begrudge ANYONE the pleasure; it's just that they can get in the way of serious browsing, particularly if there are young'un's in tow. Maybe leave them at Vesuvius next door and let the bartender earn a few extra bucks keeping them amused? I wanna be clear here: I LIKE kids, a lot, so don't get me wrong on this).
The "basement" is the best!
Also, love the banners ocassionally strung across the building facade. Ya gotta love a bookstore that's not afraid to speak it's mind and never has been. Go Ferlinghetti!!!
Great selection, lovely atmosphere.
Go to City Lights!
You won't have Shitty Nights!
Here's a historic book store to get your inner beatnik yuppie hippy on at.
Stopped by here on a couple occasions going through the China Town, North Beach, and Broadway area. Good book store!
Sorry...no acid or psychedelic drugs sold here. Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac have long passed through here on the road.
I believe from time to time they have poetry readings, special guest readers, book signings, and literary talks over here too.
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