City Lights Bookstore

It is one of the best independent bookstores in the country and a literary landmark. While it seems like most literary landmarks exist in Europe, this place is a bonefide landmark and it’s right here the in the US.

Makes me cry. I’d love to find Kerouac’s ghost (before he got fat) and have a go in the stacks.

Feel the Beat Boy vibe

i had some kind of trans generational flashback going up the stairs here.

i was in San Francisco in April 2006 for a choir tour my high school was doing. I first begged the trip director to make time in our itinerary to stop at the bookstore I’d read about for sooo long! well it was AMAZING. make sure, when you go, to stop at the door that has I Am The Door written on it. It’s nothing prophetic but just standing in front of it, knowing of all the literary genius that surrounds you in the store. just stopping there, aware of all the Beatnik culture San Francisco once thrived on, will haunt you. it was awesome and I want to go back!!