http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/24/travel-sights-lifestyle-travel-san-francisco-city-lights.html
03.24.10
At this San Francisco must-see, you're most likely to get the city's
best reads.
City Lights Bookstore
261 Columbus Ave., North Beach, 415-362-8193; www.citylights.com
Browse three floors of tightly packed stacks at this Beat Generation
bookshop. A must-see for all literature lovers, City Lights Bookstore
was cofounded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin in
1953 as the country's first paperback-only bookseller. In 1955
Ferlinghetti started City Lights Publishers, perhaps best known for
publishing Allen Ginsberg's groundbreaking Howl & Other Poems in
1956, which led to Ferlinghetti's arrest on obscenity charges.
The shop now carries a wide range of both paper and hardback titles.
Reflecting the free-speech interests of its founders, it caters to
outside-the-mainstream voices, with books on progressive politics and
social issues, works from small presses and an entire room devoted to
poetry. Although the staff members are extremely knowledgeable, they
also have a reputation for being a bit prickly with those they deem
less informed.
While you shouldn't let their snobby attitude stop you from shopping
here, you may want to think twice about asking where to find the
latest Danielle Steel novel.
Open daily 10 a.m. to midnight.
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