A lesson in free speech and expression for the would-be censorship of legitimate criticism by pompous, hyper-pretentious, hypocritically correct, "progressive" City Lights Bookstore. Yet another phony-baloney, hyper-pretentious, hypocritically correct and supposedly "progressive" bookstore that, figuratively speaking, speaks out of both sides of its equivocating mouth, trading on past(if dubious)"
fame" to obscure its own double-speak:
Supposedly, it's " one of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States," it claims in one breath at its website, claiming to carry "an impressive range of titles from smaller, harder-to-find, specialty publishers." Yet in another breath, City Lights--this supposed vanguard of the Avant-Garde--outright refuses at its website to "accept perfect-bound books self-published through iUniverse or similar companies...Perfect-bound books...submitted to City Lights Consignment for consideration will not be reviewed and will be donated." Excuse us, but such perfect-bound books, in the book trade aka on-demand books printed only as ordered, just happen to be the mainstay of a majority of truly independent small presses, or "specialty publishers," City Lights pretends to champion. Beyond that, City Lights(like most of its snobbish and pompous cohorts in the city's bookstore industry)just can't deign to be bothered to extend to independent small presses,(submitting complimentary book titles for buying consideration through standard, traditional distribution channels)the simple COMMON COURTESY of an acknowledgement much less(God and Heaven above forbid!)a simple yay-or-nay reply to submissions. And, unfortunately, City Lights is just another of San Francisco's strictly Low-Class but pretentiously "independent" bookstore establishments.
