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Literary Traveler: Chicago, your town for books
By MARGO HAMMOND, Times Books Editor CHICAGO -- Checking out a construction site might not seem like a literary pursuit, but a visit to the on-going restoration of a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the highlights on a tour of Chicago's Hyde Park, touted as "the Midwest's Largest Center for Books." Consider this: The tree-lined neighborhood, located 7 miles south of the Loop, counts 11 bookstores and an eclectic mix of museums and art galleries along a stretch 2 miles long and three blocks wide. Hyde Park is also the home of the cerebral University of Chicago, no doubt the reason for such a concentration of intellectual pleasures. Walking through the university quads formed by gothic buildings choked with ivy, it is not hard to imagine the next Saul Bellows seated on one of the stone benches, jotting details for his next masterpiece. Here are bookstores for seemingly every taste. Are you a fan of the familiar? Try the University of Chicago Bookstore at 970 E 58th St., a garden-variety Barnes & Noble branch, complete with a Starbucks. Do you like the idea of a consumer-owned store? Customers at the Seminary Co-op Bookstores who buy $30 worth of company stock get a 10-percent discount on books and stock dividends. The main co-op, at 5757 S University Ave., is set deep in the University of Chicago theology school (one local described it as a Chicago Hogwarts). The smaller branch, 57th Street Books at No. 1301 57th, is also below street level. This store has a cozy maze of rooms chock-a-block with bestsellers, literature and cookbooks, and reading tables. Three blocks east, at 1448 57th, is O'Gara and Wilson Booksellers Ltd., where book lovers have been browsing since 1937 for used, out-of-print, rare and unusual tomes. On the next block at No. 1501 is another store that carries quality used books: Powell's, the granddaddy of the Portland, Ore., behemoth. A third antiquarian shop, Ex Libris Theological Books, at 1340 55th St., specializes in used and out-of-print religion books. It is especially strong on church history, biblical studies and the philosophy of religion. For more up-to-date religious titles, there is the Lutheran School of Theology Book Center, 1100 E 55th St., where even children have their own book corner. Three of the bookstores in the area are in museums: Overlooking Lake Michigan, the Museum of Science and Industry offers more than 1,000 science books for sale. Two miles inland at 740 E 56th Place, the DuSable Trading Post in the DuSable Museum of African-American History specializes in African-American titles. And at 1155 E 58th St., the Suq at the Oriental Institute Museum carries books on the history, art and archaeology of the ancient Near East. But the Robie House Bookshop, 5757 Woodlawn Ave., wins hands down as the store in the most unusual setting -- if not for the number of titles available. The store is housed in what originally was the three-car garage of a Prairie-style house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. That multiple-car garage was one of the more forward-looking features the architect included, for he designed the house in 1909, when automobiles were only slowly replacing horses. This store offers only a modest collection of architectural books as well as Wright-inspired gifts, but visitors can tour the Robie House, which has more than 9,000 square feet of space. The house's dramatic horizontal lines and stretches of art glass windows (174 of the original 175 are still intact) inspired an architectural revolution. Tours cost $9 and will continue throughout the restoration, expected to be completed by 2007. There is no charge to visit the Robie House Bookshop. The Robie House is centrally located to begin a tour of the Midwest's Largest Center for Books. A good place to end is at the Medici at 1327 E 57th St., the closest thing the area has to a literary hangout. It has brick walls and tall wooden booths carved with grafitti (Anna Karenina carved her name in my booth -- or rather an undergrad who thought he was the first to think of such a clever joke). The Medici seems just the place to bring all those books you've bought and argue over who should win the next Nobel Prize in literature. In the '60s, when the casual restaurant was at another location, it reportedly was a favorite of activist Abbie Hoffman, the author, appropriately enough, of Steal This Book. IF YOU GO:By metro from downtown Chicago: The University Park line will take you to 57th Street Station, which puts you within walking distance of most the bookstores. By bus: The No. 6 Jeffrey Express, which runs along State Street downtown, makes stops along the east side of Hyde Park. The No. 10 Museum bus stops at the Museum of Science and Industry. By car: Take Lake Shore Drive south to 51st, 53rd or 57th streets. This year's 57th Street Children's Book Fair, which features storytelling, musical groups and open-air book booths at the intersection of 57th Street and Kimbark Avenue, will be held Sept. 22. Call the 57th Street Books at (773) 684-1300 for more information.
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From the Times Travel page
From the AP |
