Powell’s Books
1501 E 57th St., Chicago, IL‎
Neighborhood: Hyde Park

Powell’s Books.

Anna and I had no idea that Powell’s City of Books—our favorite bookstore, located in Portland, Oregon—originally opened in 1970 in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.  After finding this out last year, we decided to head down to Hyde Park this afternoon to check out Chicago’s smaller version of the mecca of a bookstore that is unfortunately over 2,000 miles away from us.  Powell’s specializes in used, rare, and discounted books.  While browsing the many shelves today, Anna and I were able to find five books we wanted, spending under $25 total between the two of us.  You would be lucky to buy two books for that price at a bigger bookstore like Barnes & Noble or Borders.  If you can’t make it to Hyde Park, Powell’s also has another store located in Lakeview, and according to their website the two stores each carry “well over a quarter million books.”  Until we can visit Portland again, Anna and I will be getting our used book fix from Powell’s in Chicago.

-Rob

Our books from Powell’s.  The top three are Rob’s and the bottom two are Anna’s.