My Favourite Bookstores in San Francisco

I recently travelled to Monterey, California for a conference and decided it would be a crime if I didn't stay on in San Francisco afterwards. It was my first time there, and what a beautiful city! I could totally picture myself living there - if it wasn't so expensive!

One thing I HAD to do when I was there was check out a few bookstores, and I found myself lost in the stacks in some awesome stores

City Lights Bookstore
 

City Lights Bookstore was one of those bookstores that seemed like some weird space-time juju was going on. I stepped in the door, blinked, and somehow an hour had passed. This three-story bookstore was hiding away in Chinatown. The entire upstairs was a poetry room, complete with a rocking chair.

Bound Together Anarchist Collective Bookstore




This isn't your grandma's bookstore. I stumbled across this gem when I was walking through the Haight-Ashbury area. They have an awesome collection of books and even browsing through the shelves makes you feel like a badass. This bookstore is (I believe) run by volunteers, and also supports the Prison Literature Project

Readers Bookstore Fort Mason

Somehow I didn't take any photos inside here here! But I was staying at a hostel in Fort Mason, and this awesome bookstore was just a few minutes away so I may have visited it quite a few times... The hardest thing about my trip was the 20kg limit on my luggage (welp!) This bookstore is operated by Friends of the SFPL and sells secondhand books. I snagged a hard cover of the US edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers stone for just $6! (They literally had a whole shelf of HP books)