The quintessential California bookseller behind City Lights gets his moment

Paul Yamazaki did not grow up loving books. In an interview at director Francis Ford Coppola’s Cafe Zoetrope — Yamazaki’s “home away from home,” just down the hill from City Lights in North Beach — Yamazaki reflected on his unlikely journey. “If it weren’t for Nancy,” he said, “City Lights would be this nice memory.” Today, it owns the building it occupies — a rarity in the book world, where many stores are beholden to landlords. … What we’re trying to do is bring more people into the full awareness of how deep and rich culture is.” Elaine Katzenberger, the operation’s executive director and publisher, said, “City Lights owes its reputation as one of the most interesting and stimulating environments a reader can find to Paul Yamazaki.” Because of him, she added, the store “provides an environment for readers that is unmatched in its breadth, its rigor and its passionate advocacy.” Among the books Yamazaki has been proud to draw attention to are Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s “ Golden Gulag ” and Karen Tei Yamashita’s novel “ I Hotel.” He’s also fervently sung the praises of work published by small Bay Area presses, including Heyday, Transit Books and Two Lines Press. Taped to the window in Yamazaki’s second-floor office is a sheet of paper that reads, “Trans rights = human rights.” City Lights, still a major North Beach destination 70 years after its founding.