Chicago bookstore

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57th Street Books – Chicago, IL

December 7, 2011 in bookstore by Kim | 1 comment

I'm a fan of a bookstore that has a Europa display

57th Street, the actual street, is perfect for the meandering bookworm.  We started with lunch at the graffiti clad Medici Restaurant.  Famous for its burgers and scribbled upon walls and furnishings, we filled the time waiting for our food by adding our own “tags” to the table top.  More importantly, within blocks there are three excellent bookstores:  57th Street Books, O’Gara & Wilson, Ltd., and Powell’s (no, not the Portland one).  We started at 57th Street Books and had a hard time ever wanting to leave.

57th Street Books is one of three bookstores that comprise a co-op, the other two being Seminary Co-op and the Newberry Library Bookstore.  We were in the neighborhood to look at the University of Chicago.  When I learned that 57th Street Books gives a 10% discount for co-op members, I immediately started adding up how much money we would save if Kyle bought his textbooks through it–another plus for Chicago.  Regardless of the discount, this is an engrossing store.  It goes on and on, just when I thought I was heading to the back, I realized I was just entering a new room.  It’s a full service store with depth in a wide variety of genres.  The atmosphere is warm and inviting with lots of exposed brick and worn wooden shelving.  The staff is chatty and welcoming.  We talked about books, the university, what it’s like to live in Hyde Park, in some ways they were just as informative as the school tour.

I love bookstores that introduce me to new books and given how many bookstores I visit in a year, it’s not aways easy to do.  57th Street stocks shelves next to the cash register for books recommended by excellent sources:  NPR, the NYT, the Economist, the NYRB, the New Yorker.  Need to know what literary people are reading but don’t have time to read all the reviews, just stop by the store and you’re set.  Throughout the store I found sheets tacked up with clever titles listing recommended books.  My favorite was “Suffering from P.H.P.S?”  (For that uninitiated, that would be the Post Harry Potter Syndrome.)  The cure included reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman, Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin (Keith recently started reading the Game of Thrones series, I think we will see him again sometime later in the decade), and a few other options that all seemed to have the word Chronicle in the title.  I love a bookstore that takes care of its customers withdrawal symptoms.

In the science section, one of those areas I usually breeze through, The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World From the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean caught my eye.  I don’t know much about science so I usually try to read one book on the subject a year; this is going to be my 2012 choice.  Plus, I’ll try to get Kelsey to read it before she takes chemistry next year, I’m sure it’s full of tidbits she can sprinkle throughout her work.

57th Street Store is worth stopping by and hanging out, who knows what you’ll find.

57th Street Books

1301 E. 57th Street

Chicago, IL

T:  773.684.1300

 

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O’Gara & Wilson, Ltd. – Chicago, IL

September 17, 2011 in bookstore, used books by Kim | No comments

I noticed one of my favorite aromas five steps before I entered the store, Chicago’s oldest bookstore smells like aged paper and binding. O’Gara & Wilson has serious books.  This is a haven for academics, anyone researching specific topics, or collectors of antique books.  I noticed an extensive religion section, quite impressive actually.  Also, significant collections of music books, German books, and other collections in various languages.  As with all good used bookstores, the offerings may change over time as collections are purchased and added to the shelves.  O’Gara & Wilson look for and buy significant book collections, if you have one to sell, this would be a good place to start.  Not everything is serious, Keith found a stack of Popular Science magazines and bought two.  Decades ago each cost 25 cents, we paid $7.50 and $12.50 for each – don’t automatically throw out those magazines in your garage, they may be worth something.

This store wins the prize for oddest decor.  Immediately apparent is the buffalo head hanging over the center aisle.  Further back is a stuffed monk.  It’s a little creepy, but in an inviting way.  I was immediately drawn into the back of the store to figure out if the statute was a witch, a monk, made out of wax or wood, was it holiday decor or permanent?  The clerk explained that when the Museum of Science and Industry was refurbished, the inscribing monk didn’t make the cut and was headed for the trash heap.  In swooped the owner to save the monk and give him a second life as guardian of the stacks.

Founded in 1882, the store has a nice history of passing from one owner to the next.  Wilson was an apprentice to O’Gara and eventually became the owner of the store.  I asked the clerk if he was next in line, he chuckled and refused to commit.

O’Gara & Wilson

1448 E. 57th Street

Chicago, IL 60637

T:  773.363.0993

 

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Kelly O’Connor McNees Shares her Thoughts on Bookstores

April 12, 2010 in bookstore by Kim | 2 comments

About a year ago, Kelly O’Connor McNees wrote a review of Words Worth Books, so we knew we wanted to pick her brain about other bookstores that shaped who she is as a writer and reader.  Here are her memories of a childhood bookstore and her recommendation for a current bookstore.  Check out our review of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Kelly’s lovely book that answers the question, why didn’t Jo marry Laurie?

1.  Did you have a special bookstore in your life when you were growing up, that helped foster your love of reading and writing?

In Lansing, Michigan, there was a 1950s-style strip mall called Frandor, kind of a funky and cool place, now that I think back on it. (It was renovated in the nineties and now looks like any other strip mall, with most of the locally-owned stores replaced by chains.) My mom loves to sew and she sometimes took us with her to the JoAnn Fabrics there. A few doors down was a small bookstore called The Community Newscenter, and I loved that place. Every single time I went in there, from about age 9 to age 12, I’d screw up my courage to ask the clerk if Ann M. Martin had written another installment in the Babysitters Club series. The answer was usually no, since I read each one in about two days. My second favorite was Sweet Valley Twins, then Nancy Drew. Other books I remember loving around that time were The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Across Five Aprils, The Dollhouse Murders, The Dark Is Rising. Sigh! I haven’t thought about that place in a long time. Sadly, it closed in 2008.

2.  Do you have a hometown bookstore now where you’re likeliest to go browse or buy?

We have moved many times in the last few years and just recently settled in Chicago. I am fond of Powell’s, which sells new and used, and the Book Cellar, which served wine. What’s not to love about that?

3.  Do you have a favorite place to do readings/signings?

You’ll have to ask me this question later this summer–my first reading is schedule for April 8 at a Barnes and Noble in Chicago.  [I read from Kelly's twitter feed that the reading went quite well.]

4.  Do you know any unusual bookstores that are doing something different from all the others?

Open Books, a new nonprofit bookstore in Chicago, collects used books and sells them in their BEAUTIFUL store to raise money for literacy programs. They also have classroom spaces above the store where volunteers teach writing workshops to kids and adults and help English language learners improve their literacy skills–they even did a “write-in” session for NaNOWriMo. How cool is that?

Seriously–check out the photos. The space is incredible.

Thank you Kelly for sharing your favorite bookstores, past and present, with us.

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