City Lights Bookstore

One of the best bookstores in town! There was a huge stock of books and the interior design was great as well. However, the staff wasn’t nice and some of their stuff was overpriced. It was worth a visit. Didn’t end up buying as much as I planned tho.

Cool bookstore in cool location.
Poetry room upstairs with extensive poetry books
No comic books if that is your sort of thing

Cute bookstore! It’s exactly what you would expect from a nice local bookstore with shelves and shelves of different categories. I liked the different rooms and the basement. The only thing about this store in particular was that I thought their selection is not that large. They were missing many book categories.

City Lights is the most wonderful of book stores. It opened around 1953 and has been in the same location since. It is must see while in San Francisco.
City Lights is not a large book store and you may not find the latest bestseller. It has world history, politics and independent books. If you want the entire collection of Charles Bukowski, you are at the right store. If you are looking for Danielle Steele, well, you may want to go elsewhere.
There are all sorts of cool old posters on the walls and the sales staff know every book in the store.
The City Lights masthead says“A Literary Meeting place since 1953″. This idea includes publishing books as well as selling them and finding the best new authors. In 1955, Ferlinghetti launched City Lights Publishers with the now-​famous Pocket Poets Series.
There are 3 stories in the little shop now and it is mostly paperback with a good selection of hard covers. You will love City Lights.

Fantastic independent bookstore! I will make a stop here overtime I am in San Francisco!

Having to drop their rating a star based solely on customer service. I can’t think of another bookstore that has so many snobby unpersonable people working for them. My last 3 trips to this place always has the same hallmark, some snobby eye rolling employee refusing to more than the bare minimum in terms of service. Book selection is still top notch but the folks working here could use some basic training in terms of helpfulness and personality.

Just wonderful!
Both a historic window into the past of the beatnik heritage of North Beach, and a current really nice assembly of thoughtful publications uncluttered by trendy current NYT top sellers or pretty coffee table books.
Walk in and the quirky and typical San Francisco funkiness hits you. Odd angles, weird stairs going off in all directions, there’s a basement and a second floor to check out. In the basement, you can look up and see brick archways and little round glass blocks let you know you’re under the sidewalk. This could not be done in these modern times.
Much of this, or all of it, is grandfathered as it would never be allowed or pass code or building inspection now, if built new, or even remodeled. It’s almost untouched from the Kerouac and Ginsberg days — or at least it feels that way.
Way cool.

Three stories of books. Been a bit too long since visiting a non-​virtual bookstore. Tons of choices and offers staff recommendations.

A San Francisco, Beat, historical classic. City Lights still maintains its cozy charm even though it is basically a juggernaut in the realm of infamous bookstores. Another review I see compares it to The Strand, Shakespeare & Co., and Powell’s. Yup. Go upstairs to the super cute Poetry Room, which makes me feel like I’m some cool chick in North Beach in 1959, listening to a bunch of hip poets. City Lights invites you to stay awhile and breathe it all in, and peruse the shelves.

City Lights is the ultimate Beatnik bookstore. It’s a historical bookstore. I have spent a lot of time visiting this bookstore. I like to browse their stacks every once in a while. They have readings by authors too. Tonight I visited to hear Maxine Hong Kingston read. She’s reading next week too.

City Lights is one of my favorite bookstores on the planet up there with: Shakespeare & Company in Paris
The Strand Bookstore in NYC
Powell’s in Portland, OR
The Beat Bookshop in Boulder, CO
City Lights was the first all paper back bookstore & opened there doors first way back in 1953. There pocket poets series is still reading & love that the books on small perfect for travel.
There is no filler here. On the basement floor there are a couple of books on vegan cooking & animal rights. There aren’t many books on these subjects yet the books they do have are amazing, rare, & gems.
City Lights is famous for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl in the 1950s & fighting censorship. Howl is one of my favorite poems of all time & picking up a copy at the source is a nice homage.
«I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix»
That was off the top of my head & decades later the poem still feels fresh as well as alive when it was written back then.
The third floor is where poetry is featured & countless books on the Beats are there. It is fascinating the sheer volume & quality of the books many of which I’ve never seen. There are comfortable chairs for you to browse making you feel at home.
City Lights should be at the top of a list to San Francisco for anyone with a remote or great interest in the Beat Generation. In the homogenization of America with Starbucks, Walmarts, & other large chain stores it is refreshing to see places like City Lights thrive!

Definitely has a wide variety of offerings, particularly in the small press /​independent literature space from publishers such as Manic D Press, Akashic, Coffee House Press, and others from the moderately-​sized indie scene. The atmosphere is very relaxed, quiet, and spacious. There are stools scattered throughout the aisles so that you can pull up to a shelf and take an extended search through the titles. Great location on Columbus. Very renowned, so I’d suggest swinging by at least once in your lifetime if you’re in the city.

Bookstores are a vacation destination for my family. City Lights is in our top five. Excellent selection and great location. Perfect pit stop between a great Italian dinner and some nice dessert (Café Puccini or NAIA Gelato usually).
And thank you to the employee who let my son use the non-​public restroom. You saved this mom!

This place is pretty amazing. The selection, the staff, the location… it has it all.
This is NOT your regular bookstore! I could spend hours in here and not even notice.
You really have to see it to believe it.

When visiting San Francisco for the first time, something that I was very excited about was visiting this bookstore. It was just as amazing as I had imagined that it would be!
One of the most iconic bookshops in the United States, it was founded in 1953 and was the first completely paperback bookstore in the U.S. — at the time considered quite daring. It was named after the silent 1931 romantic comedy «City Lights,» starring Charlie Chaplin. The shop also houses its own publishing firm, which grew to fame for publishing the poem «Howl» by Ginsberg, and as a result being sued for obscenity.
This is a quite large, three-​story bookshop that you can really get lost in. I love that it has plenty of rooms with natural light (a rarity in most bookshops). Sitting in the rocking chair in the poetry room, I wanted to spend all day there reading. I am a minimalist backpacker, so I couldn’t buy any books to take with me — but I was definitely tempted. I even went back inside after I’d left, trying to convince myself that a book could be stuffed into my tiny backpack somehow.
A San Francisco icon, and a must-​see destination for any book lover!

Ahhhh, City Lights! Classic indie bookstore and San Francisco gem. Tucked away in Chinatown amidst a spectacle of neighboring night clubs, bars, trendy coffee shops and eats. It’s perfectly grungy yet hip enough to satisfy any book lover’s dream. What makes this spot so special? The history hidden behind City Lights and what makes it such a historical landmark.
Jack Kerouac, leader of the Beat Generation who inspired so many greats within the American literary, music and culture scenes has a spot dedicated to him right here… In Jack Kerouac Alley. The Beats, or «Beatniks» owe it to him, and the poetry room and zine sections in City Lights lay testament to that budding revolutionary, independent voices that make this shop a classic stop.
I’ve only ever spent a few wanderings in here while in the area, but I can easily see what’s to love about this store. You can get lost for hours in such a tiny spot… And that’s the most important part.

I really enjoyed this bookstore and the collection of books it offered! I appreciated the «staff picks» labels throughout the store. The sections are well organized and you could easily spend hours in here, especially on a rainy day like I did!

Great bookshop filled with large collection of paperback fiction. The building itself is very beautiful and filled with history from its glory days during the beatnik revolution such as posters, pictures and wall markings. Grab a book and walk across the alley to the versuvio café to read and drink where the literacy greats did. Loving history in San Francisco how could you go wrong!

City Lights is a San Francisco institution, having recently celebrated it’s 60^th anniversary. A historic spot featuring three levels packed with books. You’ll find everything from new fiction to muckraking tomes crammed into the shelves here. The store is open until midnight, making it an ideal spot to wander into after drinks or dinner in North Beach. The lower level of the store also features various stools, chairs, and benches for patrons to mingle and preview books of interest. The third floor is a poetry room where City Lights often holds readings, signings, and other events.
Despite these positives, being a left-​leaning establishment leads to some bias in their choice of inventory (try finding books on economics in there which challenge Marx and Keynes for example). Also, the prices here are no lower than any other brick-​and-​mortar store selling new books. There is neither a «sale» nor a «used book» section, contradicting their populist vibe.

A San Francisco institution… I love it. I love the staff suggestions in each section. I love the poetry room upstairs. I love the San Francisco-​centric section right before the stairs leading up. I love the creaky wooden floor boards… City Lights is quintessential San Francisco. A few hours is not enough. A few hours for the poetry room by itself is more like it.
The bookstore has been there since I was a kid. I always feel the need to step inside any time I’m in North Beach. It’s hard to explain. It’s location, the books they carry, the foundation it was conceived on by the greats of the Beat generation, etc. The place just means so much to the city, I believe. For that, I will always be a fan and supporter. Cant say enough about the place… You just have to go check it out the next time you’re in the area. I’ll be back soon City Lights…

I loved this place from the second I walked through the door.
The exposed brick, charming archways and honey-​colored hardwoods made City Lights feel more like being in someone’s home more than a bookstore. As if someone replaced all their furniture with shelves of books and invited the public in to admire their collection.
It’s a totally different vibe than shopping in a big box corporate bookstore chain. They encourage you to make yourself at home – to sit down and read for as long as you like without being bothered.
Upstairs is a poetry reading room and there are stools and chairs sprinkled throughout the store. There’s no room in this store for a café or bakery but the contents of the wastepaper basket indicate that customers practice BYOB. (Beverage not beer)
They had all types of books:
First floor — magazines, fiction, Spanish language books, vintage style postcards of San Francisco, etc.
Second floor — poetry books, black and white postcards, etc.
Basement — travel, cookbooks, children’s books, political interest, African-​American interest, acting and theater, etc.
One thing about bookstores like this one. They have a wide variety of interesting books but not many copies of any particular book. Most books were singletons and the most I saw were triplets or quads… unless they were newer releases. If you see something you like you can’t wait to come back and get it later. Snap it up or someone else will.
They didn’t have the book I was looking for in stock (the Barnes and Noble I visited two days earlier didn’t either) but they offered to order it for me. That wasn’t an option but I didn’t want to leave without purchasing something. I bought two City Lights blank journals and a novel.
City Lights is a world unto its own for book lovers and I’m glad I got a chance to visit.

Un lieu de culture rayonnant. Celui qui aime les livres et la littérature n’aura qu’à mettre un pied à l’intérieur; il se sentira aussitôt chez lui.

Une institution culturelle à San Francisco, un monument… fondé en 1953 et qui, en bravant la censure et publiant les poètes de la Beat Generation, a joué un rôle-​clé dans le combat pour la liberté d’expression et la libéralisation des mœurs dans un pays encore largement conservateur et puritain.
Mais ce serait dommage de n’y passer que comme dans un musée, car City Lights est avant tout une super librairie indépendante, offrant une variété d’ouvrages et de thèmes rarement égalée, dans un calme et chaleureux dédale d’escaliers et de couloirs.