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p a p e r m u s t a c h e ~ Exploring Chicago’s Independent Bookstores ~ » City Bookshop, Inc.

City Bookshop, Inc.

city_bookshopUPDATE: City Bookshop has moved to:
3125 N. Broadway

1921 W. Irving Park Rd.
Chicago, IL 60613
773.880.8003
hours: Sat 12:30-7:00, Sun 12:30-6:00

Located just one block from the Irving Park CTA Brown line stop, City Bookshop is easy to get to and well worth a visit. The store’s tag line is “used and rare books selected with care” and I found this description apt. Perusing the stacks you will quickly notice that all the books are in very good condition. This is one thing that really sets City Bookshop apart.

On the day I visited owner John Flowers, he was celebrating the shop’s one year anniversary. And by celebrating I mean attending to customers and keeping an eye on the Bears game. I had the oppurtunity to talk with John about his store and how it began. For four years he collected books and stored them in an increasingly cramped apartment. When he felt he had amassed enough titles, he found this storefront on Irving Park Rd. and City Bookshop, Inc. was born.

city_bookshopThe content of the store is about half fiction with an area dedicated to books by Chicago authors and about Chicago. Other sections include philosophy, history, sci-fi, mystery, poetry/drama, science, children’s lit., and memoirs. When I asked John about his acquisition process he told me that the response from people in the neighborhood has been very positive and that locals come in often with books to sell and trade.

I asked John about online bookselling and its effect on booksellers like himself. After thinking for a moment he said that he wasn’t really worried because he thinks that readers will always want a place to go and buy books. Part of the reason John started the shop was that he just “liked the feeling of being around books.” Finally he said, “If I had a video rental business, then I would be worried.”

Last November, John invited Chicago-based artist Nadine Y. Nakanishi to exhibit a collection of her paintings. This is the first art exhibition City Bookshop has hosted but it’s a practice John would like to continue.

city_bookshopIt must be mentioned that City Bookshop offers an awesome buy 4 books get a 5th book free* deal. This bargain is hard to resist as is but John has been kind enough to offer a special deal for papermustache readers:

For one time only, mention this site and you can buy 2 books and get a 3rd* free!

* = free book must be of lesser or equal value to the books purchased at full price.

Books Purchased:

  1. Ask The Dust, by John Fante. Black Sparrow Press; 6th printing, softcover, 1989. ($7.50)
  2. The Book Of Illusions, by Paul Auster. Henry Holt and Company; 1st Edition, hardcover, 2002. ($10.00)
  3. Borges: A Life, by James Woodall. Basic Books; paperback, 1996. ($7.50)
  4. V., by Thomas Pynchon. Vintage U.K. Random House; paperback, 2000. ($6.00)
  5. Willard And His Bowling Trophies: A Perverse Mystery, by Richard Brautigan. Simon and Schuster; 1st Edition, hardcover, 1975. ($9.00)
bookstores Sunday January 22, 2006

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