Chicago's Independen
Book Shop by Cora Saddler
Mazes of bookshelves have been retired, dismantled and replaced by online shopping—a digital landscape where strolling has become scrolling and browsing has become mostly instantaneous. It’s quick, efficient, and more importantly, solitary. But even if the digital storm has weathered and worn their brick-and-mortar buildings, independent bookstores are still standing. There will always be a place for people and their communities, two values at the very core of every independent bookstore. Independent bookstores offer a place to preserve culture and build local communities: intellectually, occupationally, and economically, former LA Times arts reporter Scott Timber argues in his book, “Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class” (Yale University Press, 2015). Timberg talks about people who have jobs in small, independent stores while simultaneously working on their art. He cites Patti Smith, Quentin Tarantino, R.E.M’s Peter Buck, and Jonathan Lethem. The stores also provide a gathering space for intellectual discourse, and simultaneously, a reason for shoppers to visit the neighborhood and other nearby stores. Indeed, free speech and preservation of small business are among the advocacy issues for the American Booksellers Association, which marks Independent Booksellers Day on Saturday, April 30. “When you enter an independent bookstore, you’re not engaging with an algorithm or a bot,” says Robert McDonald, event coordinator at The Book Stall, 811 Elm St., Winnetka. “You are interacting with real human people, readers, like yourself, and allowing yourself to become part of the long conversation between writers, readers, and other readers.”
COVER STORY
Human interaction and face-to-face conversations have always been at the heart of independent bookstores, nurturing artistic and academic spaces for human connection and personal experiences in an age that often shortcuts ways to connect. “Bookstores don’t need Amazon to thrive. Amazon needs physical bookstores to do so. Physical bookstores drive discovery,” says Alain Park, owner of Howling Pages, a Portage Park bookstore specializing in European comics and graphic novels, set to open at the end of April. “You’ll discover books not because a computer recommends them, but because a fellow human being read them and believes they have value… Instead of a commercial transaction,
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it becomes a human interaction.” McDonald explains. The Book Stall has hosted many online conversations and author events downtown at the Union League Club of Chicago, with speakers ranging from Lynne Cheney to former NY Knicks player Charles Oakley. More recently, it hosted Lindsey Vonn, the most decorated skier of all time. And yet, it has not forgotten the individual in the midst of their success. During the holiday season, “staffer Charlotte read an entire recipe to someone who was housebound. We might not have sold the book, but we gained a fan for life, and hopefully, that person will spread the word about The Book Stall,” McDonald said. In the end, it’s not all about selling books. Any online store can do that, but “even the best algorithms don’t allow for the chance encounters that can happen when you browse in person,” says Park. “The primary product, if you will, of both stores is our browsing experience,” says Clancey D’lsa, director of strategy and development at Seminary Co-op Bookstore, located on 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. It offers a wide-ranging selection of academic and literary titles as well as a world-class children’s department at its 57th Street Books location. The aim is to “reach a myriad of readers wherever they may read,” D’lsa continued. “Most of our customers patronize our bookstores in order to interact with a space dedicated solely to books.” To accommodate that need, the Seminary Co-op Bookstore offers Lisa See discussed her new book "The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane" at a packed event co-chaired by the Women's Exchange on April 3, 2017 (The Book Stall-Facebook). Howling Pages soon-to-be storefront (Howling Pages-Facebook).
