This independent North Beach icon, founded by an icon of another sort, Beat writer-mentor Lawrence Ferlinghetti, goes beyond your average bookstore by shelving beat literature, anthologies, fiction from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and much more Experience San Francisco through the words written by some of the area's most famous, and sometimes hard-to-find writers. The store has its own publishing house, City Lights, which has been enriching the San Francisco community since 1953 by promoting emerging writers with an edge.
• Hours: 10a-midnight daily