Washington Post:

One of the best ways to get a read on San Francisco is to brush shoulders with the locals over current best sellers and cult paperbacks. And we're not talking about a rendezvous at the neighborhood Borders.

San Francisco has more independent booksellers within a 100-mile radius than any other city in the country, according to Hut Landon of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.

One of those, Lawrence Ferlinghetti's famous beat bookstore, City Lights, is celebrating its 50th birthday this year, but there are dozens of other great book nooks. Here are a few lesser-knowns worth visiting and the neighborhoods they're in.

If you want to talk philosophy, travel or quantum physics, Booksmith's staff is a multilingual group of artists, musicians, journalists.

We are especially fond of independent bookstore, Books, Inc., both on Chestnut Street in the Marina and on California Street in Presidio Heights. We also frequent Browser Books on Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights, as often as possible. All three bookstores will be promoted in our upcoming San Francisco neighborhood guides, "The Rugged Elegance Companion...Your Guide To Places of Taste."

We don't get to the Richmond very often, but when we do, we always stop by Green Apple. Likewise, City Lights is "an experience" for anyone looking for an indoor adventure in the North Beach area.

Happy 50th, City Lights!

~Jennifer

Hi:

Regarding your comments on Books, Inc., I have too been a long time fan of theirs and frequently visit their stores in San Francisco and a location in Burlingame.

However, at this very instant, I am absolutely disgusted with them and an inclined to never again patronize any of their store locations.

This past Friday evening, April 23rd, I was with my 11-year-old daughter visiting a former co-worker friend of mine who lives in the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco.

Okay so we are walking by the Market Street Books, Inc. location and there on the glass front entrance door is a picture of a man pulling down his pants to show off his bare buttocks. Then, right next to that is another picture of two nude men, one lying on top of the other with buttocks exposed.

Isn't this what we call at a minimum "soft porn"? Aren't there laws and acceptable norms (even for San Francisco) that proscribe that these sort of pictures are placed in a section of the store not frequented by children or, if they are displayed to the general public, are to be partially covered by plastic wrapping or otherwise...especially the "Man's Ass" part? The general porn magazine industry has to abide by these rules but apparently Books, Inc. thinks that they are not obliged by the same codes.

The described display of Books, Inc. is in poor taste, is disdainful of what the general public cares to see and is just "low class". Next thing they will have pictures of people exposing their genitalia or defecating. Well, I cannot speak for others with similar sensibilities, but I am voting with my dollars.

John Curtis