My pick for this would be a book purchased at City Lights Bookstore. While the bookstore isn't about the tourist scene, it's definitely a destination for book lovers who visit the city, and if you're searching for a unique keepsake that doesn't shout "tourist", then I think a book from this independent bookseller is a perfect solution.
First opened in 1953 by co-founders Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights has been part of the SF landscape for 50 years, and remains a beacon for anyone who supports "anti-authoritarian politics and insurgent thinking." It's not only a bookseller, but an independent publisher as well, dedicated to expanding literary catalogs with titles that are a little less conventional, but all the more thought-provoking.
If anything, City Lights Bookstore is a place to visit just to feel the history that's so much a part of its shelves and interior. Here is where the famous Pocket Poets Series was born, including No. 4 - Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems. And here is where you'll find the more than 100 titles given life by City Lights Publishers, an independent press. On its shelves, you'll find new releases, but also hard-to-find selections. The store offers a comprehensive (but hand-picked) inventory of poetry, fiction, translations, politics, history, philosophy, music, and spirituality titles.
But as for that keepsake, if you would like to take this suggestion and run with it, then I would also suggest trying to attend one of the bookstore's readings. Not only will you get to hear a promising author/poet read from his or her literary contribution, but you can get your copy signed. It's a thing-to-do and a memory to keep.
I think it's a good bet for anyone who loves books or history and is also in search of a meaningful keepsake. And if you do attend an evening reading, prior to it, you can take time out to explore North Beach or Chinatown. Perhaps first have dinner at The Stinking Rose or another neighborhood restaurant and then, make your way back to City Lights on Columbus Ave for an evening of poetry, fiction, and discussion at the bookstore dubbed: A Literary Meetingplace since 1953.
* Photo reprinted with permission of Stacey Lewis.
