Welcome to City Lights Bookstore!

A literary meeting place since 1953, City Lights is a landmark general bookstore, internationally known for its expert selection of books and for its commitment to free intellectual inquiry. Here you can check out our events calendar, browse a selection of featured books, new releases and recommended titles from the City Lights staff, sign up to receive City Lights newsletters, and learn a bit of the history of City Lights.

For any immediate questions or concerns, see our contact page or give us a call at (415) 362-8193

 

ABOUT OUR NEW BOOKSTORE SECTION, "PEDAGOGIES OF RESISTANCE"

Created in the wake of the November 2016 election, our newest bookstore section, Pedagogies of Resistance, is designed to act as an educational course in revolutionary competence. These texts build upon one another to highlight the motivations, ideas, successes, and failures that define past and present revolutionary movements in order to illuminate possibilities for current and future movement builders. 

This developing list consists of nearly 200 books, and can be found on a visit to our bookstore—we hope you'll come by to check out our new section. Our democracy needs every one of us to be as informed and engaged as possible! Arm yourself with information. The list was originally conceived in January 2017 and then updated in July 2017.

DOWNLOAD THE LIST HERE, WHICH WE ENCOURAGE YOU SHARE.

 

 

 

 

Featured and Recommended Titles at the Bookstore

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Black Leopard, Red Wolf
(The Dark Star Trilogy)
Marlon James
Spilling copious amounts of warm blood, Marlon James has dipped into African folklore & myth to breathe new life into a genre that was in danger of stagnation. I had given up on anything contemporary resembling high fantasy. Then this book hit. What seemed old & stuffy now feels unique, shocking, & challenging. As it should. Recommended by Daven
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One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand
Luigi Pirandello
Another Spurl Editions book for you FREAKS out there. A book about a descent into madness, sprung from an outside observation, and thus realization, about his nose. Point your finger and holler MADMAN! MADMAN! MADMAN! recommended by Jared, City Lights Bookstore
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Du Bois' Telegram
Literary Resistance and State Containment
Juliana Spahr
Taking her cue from W. E. B. Du Bois, Juliana Spahr explores how state interests have shaped U.S. literature. What is the relationship between literature and politics? Can writing be revolutionary? Can art be autonomous or is escape from nations and nationalisms impossible? As her sobering study affirms, aesthetic resistance is easily domesticated.
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Compass
Mathias Enard
Every decade or so, a book comes along that demonstrates the true gift that is 'Literature'. Compass is just such a book, one that through one man's single sleepless night plumbs no less than mortality, love, music, and the historical intermingling of two great cultures seemingly at odds. -- Recommended by Christopher P.
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Emergent Strategy
Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
adrienne marie brown
Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live.
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They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us
Essays
Hanif Abdurraqib
"THIS IS MY FAVORITE COLLECTION OF ESSAYS RIGHT NOW. IF YOU DON'T APPRECIATE HANIF ABDURRAQIB, YOU'RE NOT MY FRIEND! --Recommended by Jared
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The Mars Room
Rachel Kushner
Stunning and unsentimental, The Mars Room demonstrates new levels of mastery and depth in Kushner's work. It is audacious and tragic, propulsive and yet beautifully refined. —Recommended by Vanessa & Paul