Another place we had to visit while in San Francisco was the City Lights Bookstore. I've been a fan of the beats since I was in late high school so this was a most necessary stop.
City Lights was famously opened by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1953. City Lights was the first bookstore to primarily sell paperbacks which lowered the cost of purchasing a book and allowed for many to participate in the literary world without blowing your entire paycheck.
City Lights also published the books and poems of beat writers when they couldn't find publishing houses willing to publish their more controversial works. Sometimes that got them in legal trouble.
City Lights reminded me greatly of its sister store Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Despite the similar aesthetic City Lights has a personality all its own. I love both these bookstores and strongly recommend book lovers to check them both out. They are indeed literary pilgrimage sites.
So we roamed the aisles and soaked in the vibe. We took our time. It was indeed busy. But we were patient.
I had already decided on some books I would look for at City Lights. I thought it would be appropriate to purchase a couple of works from Beat legend Gary Snyder.
So in the famous Poetry Room I found a lot of Snyder works to choose from. I went with two of his classics: The Practice of the Wild and Turtle Island.
Turtle Island actually was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1975. Although I'm a big fan of Gary Snyder I had not read these two essential works of his before this trip.
