This legendary store is a book lover’s dream-come-true! Its street-level aisles of shelves brim from floor to ceiling with hardbound and paperback editions, primarily of American literature, including classics by Brautigan, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, and other literary luminaries of the Beat Era. Up a narrow flight of stairs a vast and somewhat more eclectic and painstakingly well-organized collection of poetry... More

If you are a fan of San Francisco and/or the Beats, City Lights should be on your itinerary. They have an extensive selection of Beat authors as expected, but they shine with their large offerings of hard to find books on less common topics. Definitely worth a visit.

If you love books at all, you must come here during a visit to San Francisco. The staff will allow you to browse and read for as long as you wish, and their many, many recommendations are described on notecards on the shelves throughout the store. I love to buy a children's book from each new place I visit and... More

I've been there twice. City Lights famously is the book store where the writers of the Beat Generation hung out - and even published some of their work. It is brilliant to soak up the atmosphere if you like the works of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs. Of course, these days it's very touristy and you can probably get the books... More

I love a good bookstore, and this one is on my list! Full of character and content, City Lights is a wonderful place to browse and buy. Let the diverse selections pull you in and strike a chord. Incredible vibe, but not so far out that it scares you. Like visiting and old friend who lets you look through their... More

So crammed with books that it's almost impossible to get into the store. Just bought a T-Shirt to prove that I went there.

brilliant book shop with loads of interesting books! love the recommends by the staff too, I got some good reads thanks to them!

This is the famous bookshop where beat poets could publish their banned works. Actually it's possible to find a really refined books collection about almost everything: prose, poetry, manuals, magazine and much more... sometimes they organize conference (I was there during an interesting conference about economics ). The employees aren't intrusive and it's possible to browse in silence. Grate collection... More

A selection of books found nowhere else; historically SF; publisher of some foundational contemporary books; the ghosts of Kerouac and others linger on.