City Lights Booksellers and Publisher Review

So amazing the poetry reading room upstairs!! This place is a part of history!! Kerouac, Ferhlinghetti... you can't beat it!!

From Livingston Taylor to San Francisco, there's nothing like City Lights

As far as this particular City Lights it's as special as any progressive and compassionate bookstore I've ever encountered.

Please browse, but support this SF institution, we need this bookstore to thrive and remain independent.

Corporations are not people. The store is a writer.

My church. This bookstore makes you glad you are alive.

I could read books from this shop for the rest of my life and never run out of excellent books to read.

The place. Ask, and learn things you didn't know. Browse. I dunno, why would you want to be elsewhere?

A book store with an opinion... a great place to discover.

A great and historical bookstore. City Lights is is an icon of San Francisco and of North Beach.

Supporting book store, especially this one. Glad it was full of people today, I hope they will buy and not just read!

I was told by my great friends/coworkers to visit this store; I was amazed at the store's layout, its contents... My friends/coworkers knew what they were talking about!! Helped make my first full day in San Francisco a treat; my partner and I were in the city on vacation, and I'd never been to the city, to California, before in my life.

Opens late. Great collection of books, also a great way to walk-off dinner.

This bookshop gives the impression that if it is not already a San Francisco landmark, then it definitely should be

Great to see a bookstore with the latest in political discourse, albeit much more left than centrist/right, alongside the classics. Could have spent all morning there.

I love the vibe. The collection might be a tad quirky unless you wear a beret.

Historic spot that also serves as fantastic bookstore. Great, well organized selection with staff ready to help you if you need them.

Filled with books, history and atmosphere. Go, sit, read, soak, engage, imagine and be inspired to be.

If you're visiting and don't know the rich history of this venue, a little research will enrich your visit.

Peace

A very soulful place. Great books, great history, and a great place to pick a book, sit and read. I did just that for 5 hours. It's so easy to lose one's sense of time in there. I will visit again.

City Lights Bookstore is absolutely a lovely place you must visit in San Francisco! There are plenty kinds of books displayed there. Poems and some events held on 2nd floor. I took a whole afternoon and evening to browse and read books there. Relax music and atmosphere there. <3

They have a super curious variety. If you like books you have to go!

This is a nice bookshop. It's an older building and thus a challenge if you are physically disabled.

This is a wonderful book store in the Chinatown area of San Francisco. We walked in after dinner thinking we would just browse and everyone bought a book! Great selections, well organized.

Living history, a plethora of poetry, a book lover's heaven. If you listen quietly you can almost hear those beat poets "rapping."

An institution! They have a great selection and staff picks.

One of the best booksstores I have been to. You can breath literature. It hast three floors and a great selection of books. Highly recommended.

An icon in San Francisco. Best selection of independent published books

Best bookstore in Northern California. Long live the beat!

Great atmosphere, poetry room upstairs. You can feel the history here. Hard to find books and City Lights exclusives

A North Beach favorite, and an institution of the free speech movement. No you won't find the latest Danielle Steele, but you will find some pretty legit dissertations by the Beatnik generation.

One of my favorite bookstores!
Always a favorite.

Really neat bookstore. With a wide variety of book titles. Also nice place to relax upstairs in the poem room. Worth a visit.

Great book store! Great for tourists and locals alike!

What could one possibly say about City Lights? It's an institution and if you love books you must make the pilgrimage here!

Pretty neat place. I liked the poetry section and the neighborhood.

If you like reading and discover books and magazines, be sure to visit it

A San Francisco institution with great, helpful staff.

It is not just a book shop. I am doing publishing business, but in 1950 years it is a bookstore active in the publication of beat literature by Kerouac and Ginsberg. In that sense it is a historic place.

The most famous book shop in the Bay. The history here alone is unparalleled... excellent collection of lesser found books in many subject areas, including music. An icon of San Francisco with rich history.

for those who like to smell the smell of old books ...

I've come here every time I've gone to San Francisco over the past 10 years. It's perhaps my favorite bookstore in the entire world, no joke. Fantastic progressive (and even subversive) selection. I've bought everything from books on hacking, linguistics, philosophy, consciousness, poetry, sci-fi, zines, and more here. Great small press selection. Don't forget to visit the basement!

Despite being advertised as the "must see" bookstore when visiting San Francisco, I wasn't overwhelmed by the place.

It's definitely a lovely laid out, cosy bookstore with some cute quirks. However, I left the store having purchased a single post card. The book selection is mediocre. There appears to be so many genres that there can't possibly be a solid selection of any of them.

I saw posters advertising their poet nights, and they appear to have that aspect that attract people on other nights of the week.

They're conveniently located in the centre of the city near bars and restaurants, and within walking distance of it hotel in the financial district, so if you're in the area it's stilll worth checking out.

That said, next time I'm in San Francisco I'll happily take the bus to Green Apple Books.

Nice, relatively quiet place with multiple levels (upper level holds poetry books) with a couple of nice chairs to sit in upstairs a nice contrast from
the city streets

A super rad bookstore in the city. It's larger than it looks too. Has a underground floor and a little poetry room upstairs.

Definitely worth popping into when looking for a new book.

Beatnik vibe. The variety of literature here is selective, controversial, and often impossible to find in conventional bookstores.

Famous for publishing Beat Poets, this book shop has everything you'd want in a small, traditional, comfy spot. The atmosphere is close and quiet, and although the lighting is good it manages to feel yellow and warm, not white and bright like a big chain. I think it's the layout of this shop that encourages you to linger and browse - you feel like you are in a warren that goes in twists and turns with something new around every corner.

More historical landmark than bookstore these days, but a haven for liberal political essays.

Great bookstore feel. The lady behind the counter needed a bit of a polish on her customer service, but the store was great and filled with history. A must see if you are into old school books. Enjoy!!!

Good bookstore in the North Beach area with lots of unique books not found in mainstream stores. The children's selection is a bit small when looking for a gift.

What can I add that others haven't already said? Eclectic, almost exhaustingly large and refreshing in its lack of toys, coffee, Moleskine notebooks, and stationary giftsets. Just books as far as the eye can see.

I love the mix of mainstream and local publishing. Sci Fi and fantasy sections are a little small but the City Lights publishing and other sections more than compensate. An SF staple for sure.

Always a delight. So many incredible books. I love coming in here and browsing. Inevitably, I snap up one or two titles. My favorite section is the American Indian section. There are always lots of titles dedicated not only to history, but to current affairs and politics of ongoing settler colonialism which challenge us to re-examine our legitimacy as occupants of this land. They also have many great titles on labor and on SF history and travel which I love. Upstairs is the poetry room dedicated to the beats, mostly men of course. Among them you may find a woman or two whose talent and depth exceeds all the men. I enjoy the poetry room because it is the quietest, most secluded part of the store. There is a table and chair which invites you to sit and read some verses or write a couple yourself. The room overlooks an alley and neighboring rooftop which one could use to simulate the idea that they were writing in their kitchen in a cramped North Beach apartment. Cheaper than renting your own!

Beautiful and tradicional! Great reviews about books so you can choose some New ones to read!

City lights is perfect! They have great selection of books as well as amazing staff recommendations.

An anachronism that defines Columbus Street. Historic store with books you'll find nowhere else.

There was something absolutely magical about City Lights. The vibe was absolutely perfect and has me wanting to experience reading a physical book again... Something I haven't done in forever. You can just feel the history of this place. Head uostairs to the Beatnik section!

Food for thoughts in a place where people feels welcome.

Amazing book store, the vibe here its unique, the world need more places like this!

I'm a bookstore junkie and this was definitely a destination book stop. So much history.

A bookstore with a very historical flavor, with many special collections in it, worth a visit

Amazing bookstore, everything you could be interested in a compact place 3 stories high. Sit and read, people watch, or get out of the rain.