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Powell's Bookstores North

Chicago LoopSouth Loop

The shop: Last year, when Powell's Chicago closed its South Loop store after two decades, it was an ominous sign. If a quality used-book institution such as Powell's, which opened in Hyde Park in the '70s, was suffering, what did that signal for other booksellers?

Powell's abides. The South Loop store was mainly a warehouse opened to the public. Now one warehouse serves the two remaining locations. "We're keeping our head above water," said Derek Medley, the store manager of Powell's North in Lincoln Park. With its huge collections of fiction, art, architecture and photography, and a back room devoted to rare and out-of-print books, North has more of an artistic slant than its scholarly parent in Hyde Park. North is huge for a used bookstore, and the antidote to the shuttered basement warehouse in South Loop. Two of the four rooms have open floor plans with 14-foot ceilings. You might need to ask an employee for help - to get to the upper deck. Though its regular reading series stopped last year, North hosts periodic author appearances and readings. It's confusing, Medley admits, being a used bookstore when competition is no longer down the street but around the world via the Internet.

Visit: Powell's Bookstores North, 2850 N. Lincoln Ave., 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, or go to powellschicago.com.

Copyright © 2014, Chicago Tribune
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