There are some places that seem to rest in space, where time seems to hang in the air breathing in the context of a certain moment. Once a place has been touched by a particular age, the aura of that lost energy disappears slowly, as strands of colors fading in the dying repose of a setting evening sun; following the breath sung eternal by writers and poets, who once ruled the day with their laughter, only to be remembered in the fragments of things lost or left behind. They and their fellow passengers along the journey of poetic bliss have left for points unknown, imagined, long since forgotten along the by-ways of literary expressionism.
Writers like painters leave the most beautiful remnants in those chests of memories. A torn piece of paper, a rain-soaked notebook, some dried out ink pen lying inside a shattered liquor bottle are among some of the things that they tend to leave behind. These and a whole string of tales and stories, that once left unattended, grow into myth; until such myths become the storyteller. If enough time passes, it is difficult to distinguish between the rhyme that the poet or storyteller used to write his wandering ramblings read in the late night sessions to his listeners, and the true story that the actual writer has lived. City Lights seems to be such a place, and part of the allure with the bookstore is that readers still pass through its' doorways each year to purchase books of past and present eras, "A la bohemia a la carte."
City Lights Bookstore is a small three story building that sits on the edge of Columbus street in North Beach, San Francisco. Humble in its' origins and appearance, the bookstore does not seem to stand out amidst the highrises and ever- flowing lanes of traffic, filled with lines of moving cars mixed with pedestrians in modern day San Francisco. In fact, to the occasional visitor, who may visit the trendy newer shops or follow the newest fashions or fads, the buildings on Columbus street and the other structures that surround it may seem to be over- shadowed by the more recently constructed complexes, such as the TransAmerica building, that rises upwards to the clear blue skies circling the bay on any sunny day. But, beneath the bustling and movements of this modern city lies another world that can easily be passed over by the not too casual observer. Some have stated that North Beach is one of the best kept secrets in the bay area.
Literary folks and international scholars have come to recognize the area as being a
