or What I Did on My Christmas Vacation
After Kim sent me TWO separate e-mails with links to websites that said City Lights is one of the best bookstores in the country, I figured she’d never forgive me if I came back from San Francisco without visiting it. Not that it was a chore, by any means–I love going to bookstores–but it was a necessary pleasure.
Famous from its inception because the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti was one of the co-founders, City Lights quickly became a meeting place for members of “the Beat” generation and a supporter of books that conservatives wanted to ban. They’ve continued their “fight the power” attitude–there’s a left-of-liberal political message in every well-lit upstairs window. To summarize: Bush is bad, so is war, and freedom of expression is good.
I don’t mean to be overly glib: this is a good place which has supported the right side of literary and political causes for decades. So they’ve earned the right to enjoy their reputation–not to mention the hordes of people who stream into the place and, I assume, actually purchase books before leaving. Read the rest of this entry »
Claire
Kim
