Unabridged Bookstore is a real life physical bookstore located at 3251 N. Broadway in Chicago, IL. This is our Tumblr of books and other misc. things that sometimes involve books, but might also involve kittens. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
I am trying to post all of our hours everywhere because if you’re a planner and need to plan your book needs.
12/22 - 9am - 7pm.
12/23 - 10am - 7pm.
12/24 - 9am - 4pm.
12/25 - We’re closed BECAUSE ITS CHRISTMAS DAY.
12/26 - 10am - 9pm. Please spend any remaining holiday dollars on books.
“Fantastic days,” he continued, “are for goners.”
Reflecting on what he called “the empathy broadcast” Mr. Rakoff wrote:
it does not soften the blow, indeed it does the opposite. It leaves you exposed, like grabbing onto the trunk of a tree for support in a storm only to find the wood soaked through and punky and coming apart in your hands. The sweetest bedtime-story delivery is no help when the words it delivers are a version of “ … and behind this door is a tiger. Brace yourself.”
The essay concludes: “Have a fantastic day.”
Dogs reading! And this is why we go to Buzzfeed.
CASUAL VACANCY cover unveiled. OF COURSE we will be having a midnight release party. We are not monsters.
Stefan is in this book! Plus other amazing booksellers from across the country talking about the books they love. Hold your horses! Its not out until September. We’ll remind you gently when the time comes.
Read This!
John Grisham seen throwing out the first pitch at today’s Cubs game. The Cubs may have lost, but we all win with Grisham’s new baseball themed novel! CALICO JOE available now! (Yes that was very cheese-ball.)
Penguin Classics. Deluxe.
We’re hosting Alex Stone, author of FOOLING HOUDINI, June 26! It is going to be so cool.
This morning I toured a MAGIC LIBRARY. What’s a magic library you say? It is a special collection for magicians, of course! I originally heard about it while reading Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind which is a fascinating book coming out this June about magic and math. So because I always oblige when someone asks for a tour of my library, I decided hey why not and emailed the Conjuring Arts Research Center asking for a tour.
A few things of note:
1. I asked them how they handle collection development since the librarians there seem to be archivists, not magicians. This is when I was informed that they have a “resident magician” (!!!) who does most of the collection development.
2. The librarian explained to me that their most difficult type of researcher is an actual magician. Why? Because they are very good at making things disappear. She was not joking. They have to literally keep careful watch over magician researchers so they won’t make any rare manuscripts POOF disappear.
3. Their catalog, which is only available to members, is called Alexander. I was curious to know where the name came from since most libraries have adorable stories for how they named their online access catalog (although my alma mater’s is named Aladin, which…boring). Turns out it is named after Alexander, a mentalist who was made famous by his ability to read minds. THIS IS A MAGIC LIBRARY JOKE.
4. On my way out, the resident magician performed a trick for me. At first I was excited until I realized it was a trick my dad used to play on us when we were small called Black Magic. The resident magician must have assumed I was a magic rookie.
This is just so awesome I am out of words.
Our April (a few days early) book of the month!
THE FREE WORLD by David Bezmozgis! The shelf talker: “Ed loved THE FREE WORLD, the spectacular first novel by David Bezmozgis. From sexual drama to Soviet history: It is a very human novel of exile and yearning. The Krasnasky’s are a Jewish family forced to flee Soviet Latvia. They are now stuck in Rome navigating the bewildering path of emigration to the west. There is a huge divide between generations, between communism and the west, between men and women, especially Alec and his wife, Paulina. This is a great story, a complex social novel where Bezmozgis balances all his characters brilliantly! Ed highly recommends this first novel.”
Finished with the Hunger Games? Try one of our dystopian favorites next!
Happy Birthday Kerouac. All 90 years of you. Would have been.
“This isn’t quite the story you read so long ago sipping coffee in a cafe and puffing on those trendy cigarettes that even your un0cool brother was smoking. This is the product of Kerouac on one long trip (120 feet typed out and rolled up) back and forth across the country in a frenzied narrative propelled by his desire to see it all - one long paragraph with no chapter breaks and Neal Cassady becomes the real start of this show bouncing from one thing to the next to where Kerouac can not keep up.
The plot is still the same, but the characters (with the pseudonyms replaced with real names) are more alive and less stifled by the rigorous editing that Viking heaped on Kerouac.
This is for fans of the originals. This is for those who want to get a taste of what Kerouac and his cronies were trying to put into the public conscious. Stefan loved and highly recommends!”
On Thursday, March 8, at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium, the National Book Critic Circle presented its awards for publishing year 2011. The prize in fiction went to Edith Pearlman for Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories (Lookout Books), a collection of 34 Chekhov-like short stories…
Boost your brain power thing with the Introducing series and A Very Short Introduction series from Oxford!
