Protecting the Literary Zeitgeist of Hyde Park’s Indie Book Scene
“A good bookstore sells books, but its primary product, if you will, is the browsing experience…One of the great benefits of the act of browsing is the rumination it evokes.”Source: Jeff Deutsch, “In Praise of Good Bookstores“
If there is a neighborhood in Chicago that reaches for the pinnacle of a book lover’s nirvana, it has to be Hyde Park. Surrounding the University of Chicago and situated just south of the Loop, this epicenter of learning, education, and literature is a bibliophile’s wonderland of Indie bookstores.
Source: schoolstreetposters.comHowever, just when it felt like the dust had settled from years of fighting off the tentacles of Amazon’s loss-leading blitzkrieg on bookstores, a new threat has set up shop right in Hyde Park’s very midst. This time it’s not a digital menace, but instead a big-box goliath — Barnes & Noble.
Yes, in a free market, competition is supposed to benefit the consumer. But, and this is a big but, at what cost? Price is not and should never be the sole factor, especially in the book realm. What about the value of the experience? What about service? What about variety? What about the discovery of the unexpected? What about home-grown? What about locally owned and operated? What about sanctuary-like ambiance? What about a delicate mix of existing independent bookstores who live and operate as a cohesive draw to Hyde Park?
“The value is, and always has been, at least in the good and serious bookstores, in the experience of being among books–an experience afforded to anyone who enters the space with curiosity and time. And the yield is discovery, not of what we think we know we want, but of that which we have yet to encounter.” Source: Jeff Deutsch, “In Praise of Good Bookstores“
Typically, a big-box store will not draw people from far outside the local vicinity when it has dozens of locations spread all over Chicagoland (21 at last count). Meanwhile, a unique and varied collection of Indie bookstores can and will do just that (draw customers from further afield) because of the collective experience they offer — and that sublimely satisfying pastime known as “browsing” where one can wander, wonder, discover, ponder, and partake without interruption. Such a unique labor of love [browsing] can never be truly replicated in a big box. Imitated maybe. Replicated, never.
University of Chicago in the heart of Hyde Park – Source: pme.uchicago.edu“Big-name box bookstores have installed cafes and armchairs precisely because people like to hang out around books. Next time you’re in one of those cavernous megasellers, see for yourself how they’ve worked yo create ambiance. Look at the shelf placement, how they’ve been arranged to mark off cozy little reading nooks. Somebody’s tried very hard to make you forget you’re in a warehouse.” Source: Wendy Welch, “The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap”
Call & Response, 57th Street, Powell’s, Seminary Co-op, University of Chicago Bookstore, and Build Coffee & Books all combine to fulfill a literarian’s needs in this special corner of the Windy City. Why, other than to disrupt the curated zeitgeist of Hyde Park, does B &N really need to be there?
Hopefully, over time B &N will find itself out of place in Hyde Park and move on to greener pastures elsewhere. And if they do hang around for longer, it’s as a cohort versus a predator.
My guess is the good people who shop the existing Indie bookstores in and around Hyde Park will continue their time-honored tradition of supporting the stores that germinated in and around Hyde Park and avoid the intruder. May it be so.
In the interim, either the individual store websites or bookshop.org offer easy access for all of us who cannot be physically in Chicago on a regular basis to assist the Indie bookstores in Hyde Park. All of them, except the campus bookstore have a presence on the bookshop.org site (57th Street through Seminary Co-op).
Peace, happy reading, and great browsing!
“Every great bookstore allows the reader to get lost in it.” – Source: Jeff Deutsch, I”n Praise of Good Bookstores“
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