5 Used Bookstores To Stop By in Chicago

The Printer's Row Lit Fest comes but once a year, so what's a reader in the City of Big Shoulders to do in the off season?  The bargain prices, the indie atmosphere, and the thrill of discovery make used bookstores the life of Chicago's vibrant reading community.  Loud Library checked in with employees at 5 popular used bookstores in Chicago to get the goods:

The Armadillo's Pillow Bookstore

By Loud Library

Enter The Pillow and prepare to be greeted by the calmly penetrating gaze of an armadillo.  Scattered throughout the store, armadillos of the wooden, clay, and stuffed variety lurk on shelves and around corners.

 Purveyor of everything from shark teeth to incense, 50¢ paperbacks to a 1st edition copy of The Catcher in the Rye, The Armadillo's Pillow may just be, as employee Shannon put it, "the best shop in the world." 

Interested? Drop in Tuesdays at 6pm for Open Mic at the Pillow or get involved with the Armadillo's Pillow Literary Support Group.

Address:

6753 N. Sheridan Rd. 

 Chicago, IL 60626

Telephone:

773.761.2558

• Learn more at The Armadillo's Pillow official website.
• Click here to like The Armadillo's Pillow Book Company on Facebook.

Myopic Books

By Scott Rettberg

Located in an old jewelry shop, Myopic Books is, as bookseller Chelsea described it, "a treasure hunt and crazy maze of books".  

Myopic's selection spans many disciplines, including architecture, mythology, philosophy, local history, and graphic novels.  From locals to tourists and internationals, people go there to get lost in the shelves.  

Myopic is also a bustling venue for a variety of events, including an  improvised/experimental music series, semi-weekly poetry readings, and the  Wicker Park Chess Club. 

Address:

1564 N. Milwaukee Ave. 

 Chicago, IL 60622

Telephone:

773.862.4882

• Learn more at the Myopic Books official website.
• Click here to like Myopic Bookstore on Facebook.
• Read on at Myopic's blog.

O'Gara & Wilson, Ltd.: Antiquarian Booksellers

By Natalia Wilson

Carrying rare, out of print books, antiques, and old documents acquired at estate sales, O'Gara & Wilson, Ltd.,  is Chicago's oldest used bookstore, dating as far back as 1882. 

Today, "stores like this are becoming rare, almost as rare as the books in them," says current owner Doug Wilson.  He describes his customers as "people that still have a sense of adventure" and come in not necessarily knowing what they will find. 

Just as interesting as the books is Wilson's history with the store, which began over 40 years ago with a chance apprenticeship.  Be sure to visit and ask him about some of his interesting experiences, finds, and the store's resident monk [pictured above]. 

Address:

1448 East 57th St. 

Chicago, IL 60637

Telephone:

773.363.0993

• Learn more at the O'Gara & Wilson, Ltd. official website.
• Click here to like O'Gara and Wilson, Booksellers, on Facebook.
• Read on at the O'Gara & Wilson blog.

Powell's Bookstore 

By Quinn Dombrowski

Powell's is, according to manager Alex, a favorite bookstore of academics in Chicago, specializing in the philosophical, medieval, and classical since 1971.

  Today, Powell's has expanded to two Chicago locations and a sister store in Portland, OR.  The aisles between the bookshelves are narrow, but the highly selective stock is in-depth and extensive.  Powell's is also the sole North American distributor for reprints by the Oxford University Press.  

From the free book box out front to a history of Rome circa the 1400s, Powell's has something didactic for everyone.

Hyde Park Address:

1501 East 57th St. 

Chicago, IL 60637

Telephone:

773.955.7780 

North/Lakeshore Address:

2850 North Lincoln Ave. 

Chicago, IL 60657

Telephone:

773.248.1444

• Learn more at the Powell's Bookstores Chicago official website.
• Click here to like Powell's Bookstores, Chicago, on Facebook.
• Read on at the Powell's blog.

Quimby's Bookstore

By Ramsey Beyer

Back in 1991, comic book artist Chris Ware created the character of Quimby the mouse.  

Quimby The Mouse from This American Life on Vimeo.

At the same time, friend Steven Svymbersky opened a bookstore and coincidentally decided to call it Quimby's.  

Since then, the whimsically sadistic mouse has become a symbol for Quimby's odd assortment of new, consignment, and independently published books, comics, and zines ["independently published periodicals"].  

Liz, manager at the store, mentioned Crap Hound, a schizophrenic zine collage, as just one of many wonderfully weird things to be found at Quimby's.

Address:
1854 W. North Ave. 
Chicago IL, 60622

Telephone:
773.342.0910

• Learn more at the Quimby's Bookstore official website.
• Read on at the "quimblog."

Video: Questions for a Librarian

Loud Library spent some time this week with Niamh McGuigan, a reference librarian at Loyola University's Cudahy library, to ask about everything from her job responsibilities to her favorite type of music.

Watch the video below to learn about how technology, book sales, and the economy are affecting what kinds of books are getting published.

• The 1st book mentioned is The Statistical Abstract of the United States.  Visit the online version here.
• The 2nd book mentioned is On Elegance While Sleeping by Viscount Lascano Tegui. 
• Song is "Humming Birds" by MyNameIsJohn.
• Video shot and edited by Loud Library.

One Small Step, One Giant Conspiracy?

Forty-two years ago today, man landed on the moon.  

By David Trawin

 . . . Or did he?

According to a Gallup poll taken on the 40th anniversary of the landing, 6% of Americans believe the moon landing to have been fake.

The footage of the landing is highly suspicious, they maintain: the lighting is off, the flag is too rigid, the stars are absent, and the image quality is too high to have been taken in space.

All these details prove that the whole thing was staged by NASA, filmed on a sound stage, and possibly directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Did I mention it was produced by Walt Disney?

Moon hoax skeptics have kept busy these past four decades, disseminating their creative conspiracy theories through documentaries, TV spots, secret societies, and, of course, books.

Get acquainted with the genre below: 

• Read the book that started it all: We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle by Bill Kaysing.
• Confused? Blogger Darryl Cunningham explains The Moon Hoax in comic format.  
• A skeptic yourself?  Join the The Flat Earth Society and associate with like-minded conspiracists. 
• Watch the documentary A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon, then see Buzz Aldrin give Bart Sibrel, the film's maker, quite the warm welcome:

Austen's Emma Watson Finds a New Home

On July 14, the day before the premiere of the last Harry Potter film, Sotheby's auctioned the story of Emma Watson for over $1.6 million.  



By AP Images 

No, not the Emma Watson known for playing the role of Hermione Granger, Harry's brainy witch friend.  

Emma Watson, the worrywart minor character on The Andy Griffith Show?  Guess again.  

Not Emma Woodhouse, matchmaker extraordinaire, but Emma Watson, the heroine of an unfinished Jane Austen manuscript, commonly known as The Watsons.  

Austen began The Watsons in 1803, but abandoned it two years later when her father died.

By Ben Sutherland

The unfinished manuscript is the only known copy, an early draft written in Austen's own hand and peppered with corrections and afterthoughts.

This intriguing tale follows the refined Emma, who has been raised by her aunt, as she returns home to live with her father and sisters.  Less cultured than she, Emma's sisters are shameless in their pursuit of husbands.  Deliciously ill-made matches and tension follow.  

One of the last Austen manuscripts to have been privately owned, The Watsons now belongs to the highest bidder - Oxford University's Bodleian Library.

There is, perhaps, nothing more frustrating than a story without an ending.  If completed, The Watsons would have been counted as a classic along with Miss Austen's other six novels. 

Nevertheless, to read this piece of unfinished business is to get a raw and intimate look into the author's mind and her musings.  To read the beginning of The Watsons and learn how the story would have ended, click here.

Sneak Peek: The Armadillo's Pillow

By Loud Library

While on a fact-finding mission to The Armadillo's Pillow bookstore, Loud Library happened upon this lovely 1st edition [1904] copy of The Master's Violin by Myrtle Reed, a successful author in her day.

Opinion is divided over Miss Reed's merit as a writer - some praise her love stories as sweet and insightful, others dismiss them as sentimental and thin.

Whatever the case may be, Loud Library is excited to put The Master's Violin on the to-read list.

Check back soon for the piece de resistance: a guide to used bookstores in Chicago.

By Loud Library

Buzz: Loud Library Branches Out

By Jay Cameron

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Technology overload got you in a tizzy?  Calm down with a worn paperback copy of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

If all else fails, you can always light out for the Territory.

By Garret Ziegler

On the Bookshelf #1: The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

By Albert Weisgerber
Photo by emmeffe6

The crystal mountain, the glass coffin, the wise fool, the brave tailor, the prince under a terrible curse - these are just a few of the unforgettable places and people that populate the pages of The Complete Grimm's Fairytales.

Regarded by many as the greatest work of German literature, the stories are short and strange, long and twisted, enigmatic, and wonderful.

It was while working as librarians in Kassel, Germany, that brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm became fascinated with folk poetry and tales.  

After collecting stories for six years, they published Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children' and Household Tales) in 1812.  Two years later, they came out with a second volume.  Today, those two books are known as The Complete Grimm's Fairytales.  

Commoners told folk tales then to explain confusing events, teach important morals, and express their deepest fears and desires.  These lessons continue to resonate with readers young and old.

• Click here to learn more about the life and times of the Brothers Grimm.
• Start reading The Complete Grimm's Fairytales at Project Gutenberg.