Favorite Bookstores

When I was young, I used to spend hours browsing the stacks at the now defunct Kroch's and Brentano's. There were many locations throughout Chicagoland and I regularly visited several of them. I remember on one occasion my mother remarked to me that Mr. Duncan Hines had just walked past us as he roamed the store at Randolph and Wabash in downtown Chicago. I said "who?" I didn't know that he was a famous art and food critic for one of our local newspapers or that the Duncan Hines cake mixes were named for him.  I remember following him because my mother said he was a famous person and all the customers stopped browsing to watch him. In my mind he was just another old man with a cane. When I grew older and wanted to learn a foreign language, I was introduced to 2 ladies who managed the foreign language tapes section. For each language there were between 5 and 10 companies who made the audiotapes. These ladies knew the ins and outs of each product within each brand. Their knowledge was unparalleled and I cannot think of any other bookshop providing service as Kroch's and Brentano's did.

After Kroch's went out of business in 1995 we were lucky to get a Waterstones to open in the gold coast neighborhood.  The main thing that captured my attention with Waterstones was the prevalence of poetry books. I spent alot of time picking out which ones I would buy during each visit. Waterstones carried types of books that I had never seen before as well as categorizing them in different ways. I remember a section on medieval books.  I always spent time perusing this section.  It was a pretty busy area too. This store was huge, three stories I think. I was devastated when it closed.

After a few years with no bookstores in my area, Borders came to town.  It was the first bookstore to have a cafe inside it and it was always packed. The only way to guarantee finding a seat was to run up the escalator when it opened up in the morning. The few leather seats were always taken and folks spread out their coats and bags to save the seat when they used the restroom or searched for more books. This bookstore sold items other than books and the fancy paper section always drew me in. The primary Borders that I shopped at was at Randolph and State in downtown Chicago. It was close to where I worked and I could shop there on my lunch hour. On weekends I would shop at the Clybourn Corridor location. This location had half of the first floor devoted to magazines. Being a magazine addict, I spent way too much money there.

The only bookstore left after Borders went bankrupt was Barnes and Noble. I particularly liked the branch in Old Town. It carried many types of art books that the downtown store didn't sell. Last October the Old Town store lost their lease and closed. The downtown store remains open for business but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it only offers curbside pickup services. Barnes and Noble was already in fiscal trouble before the pandemic. I doubt it will survive.

It is depressing to consider that the era of bookshops is over. There is always Amazon but it just isn't the same.