10 independent bookshops you should visit worldwide: our readers recommend | Books | The Guardian

4. City LightsHandy site which provides links to 7,500 US publishers' sites and online catalogues. www.lights.com/publisher/ Books, San Francisco (California, USA) A destination in its own right for any visitor of San Francisco, City Lights was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D Martin, and it was not only a place of congregation for authors of the Beat generation but also featured in many of their works. The first all-paperback bookshop in the US, City Lights has always published as well as sold, a tradition it maintains to this day with more than 20 new titles published each year. You can also pop across the street to Vesuvio Cafe where Kerouac, Ginsberg and co used to hang out.