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
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