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i spent all afternoon walking, and it was amazing.
i started at my apartment...on thorndale, near glenwood. i walked east to broadway, and north to granville. and then, i learned all about the wonders of that stretch of granville, from broadway east to the lake.
first, i hit a little bookstore. not just any bookstore...but a black communist bookstore. it had a few books that had nothing to do with black history, communist history, or the intersection of the two...but not all that many. it also had copies of the worker's vanguard for sale. i hadn't seen that paper since college...and i had always seen it sold by belligerent people hanging around by the reynolds club. i had never seen it in a bookstore. and, the guy who ran the bookstore? not belligerent at all. quite nice.
then, i went down the street...and almost immediately hit the gerber-hart library. i swear, i am buying a membership to this library when i move back to town. whenever i'm in a library or a bookstore, i always spend the most time in the sections that have to do with sexuality and queer studies...just because i find it fascinating. and what is gerber-hart? it's an lgbt library and archive. the ENTIRE LIBRARY is about sexuality and queer studies. a year's membership is $40...which makes no sense to buy when i'm leaving town for two weeks and going to be living in st. louis until may of next year. but, i spent a long time browsing the stacks, and when i move back here i'm getting a membership so i can check out all the fascinating books from there that i want, and read them on my own time.
then, it was down the street to metropolis, a little coffeeshop. i hung around there for maybe forty-five minutes or an hour, sipping amazing coffee and reading some more of the book that i'm in the middle of.
after that, i walked the rest of granville, out to the lake, and found a park. i forget the name of it...but it's right on the lake. there are great rocks there to sit on and read. there's also an outdoor cafe, right in the park, although i didn't avail myself of it because i had just spent all that time in the coffeehouse. i just sat on a rock and read for a while.
verdict? that stretch of granville, from broadway to the lake, is now one of my favourite stretches of road in all of chicago.
but, i kept walking. i walked up sheridan...north of granville, past loyola, and further. i found a music store with the best name ever: flatts and sharpe's. it had a nice selection of books for everything except for voice. a pity, since i was looking for books of music for singing. but, if i could play an instrument, it would have been paradise.
i also found an amazing used bookstore on sheridan, between columbia and pratt: armadillo's pillow books. i had to restrain myself...i only bought three books. but...it had everything from paperbacks to great literature to philosophy...and, i swear, i saw half of the stuff i read at the u(c) somewhere on those shelves. it was so cozy, too. it's amazing...i know all you hyde parkers will probably tell me i'm a blasphemer, but it's better than powell's. it's my new chicago book heaven.
i then kept walking...up sheridan, all the way up to juneway terrace. i meandered that neighbourhood a bit, but it was residential, and didn't have any shops or restaurants to check out. finally, it was getting really humid, and i decided to backtrack to the howard train station and go home.
it was such a nice walk, though. i discovered lots of places i didn't know existed, and i was reminded of why i love this city so much. i've spent five years of my life, plus this summer, in this city...and i still have so much to discover about it. this place will never get old. i'll never know all of it...but i must at least try.
why didn't i do this earlier this summer? why didn't i discover all this stuff, discover this amazing walk, back in may? now it's almost august, and i'm leaving town in less than two weeks.
at least i can file it away...for the future.
i started at my apartment...on thorndale, near glenwood. i walked east to broadway, and north to granville. and then, i learned all about the wonders of that stretch of granville, from broadway east to the lake.
first, i hit a little bookstore. not just any bookstore...but a black communist bookstore. it had a few books that had nothing to do with black history, communist history, or the intersection of the two...but not all that many. it also had copies of the worker's vanguard for sale. i hadn't seen that paper since college...and i had always seen it sold by belligerent people hanging around by the reynolds club. i had never seen it in a bookstore. and, the guy who ran the bookstore? not belligerent at all. quite nice.
then, i went down the street...and almost immediately hit the gerber-hart library. i swear, i am buying a membership to this library when i move back to town. whenever i'm in a library or a bookstore, i always spend the most time in the sections that have to do with sexuality and queer studies...just because i find it fascinating. and what is gerber-hart? it's an lgbt library and archive. the ENTIRE LIBRARY is about sexuality and queer studies. a year's membership is $40...which makes no sense to buy when i'm leaving town for two weeks and going to be living in st. louis until may of next year. but, i spent a long time browsing the stacks, and when i move back here i'm getting a membership so i can check out all the fascinating books from there that i want, and read them on my own time.
then, it was down the street to metropolis, a little coffeeshop. i hung around there for maybe forty-five minutes or an hour, sipping amazing coffee and reading some more of the book that i'm in the middle of.
after that, i walked the rest of granville, out to the lake, and found a park. i forget the name of it...but it's right on the lake. there are great rocks there to sit on and read. there's also an outdoor cafe, right in the park, although i didn't avail myself of it because i had just spent all that time in the coffeehouse. i just sat on a rock and read for a while.
verdict? that stretch of granville, from broadway to the lake, is now one of my favourite stretches of road in all of chicago.
but, i kept walking. i walked up sheridan...north of granville, past loyola, and further. i found a music store with the best name ever: flatts and sharpe's. it had a nice selection of books for everything except for voice. a pity, since i was looking for books of music for singing. but, if i could play an instrument, it would have been paradise.
i also found an amazing used bookstore on sheridan, between columbia and pratt: armadillo's pillow books. i had to restrain myself...i only bought three books. but...it had everything from paperbacks to great literature to philosophy...and, i swear, i saw half of the stuff i read at the u(c) somewhere on those shelves. it was so cozy, too. it's amazing...i know all you hyde parkers will probably tell me i'm a blasphemer, but it's better than powell's. it's my new chicago book heaven.
i then kept walking...up sheridan, all the way up to juneway terrace. i meandered that neighbourhood a bit, but it was residential, and didn't have any shops or restaurants to check out. finally, it was getting really humid, and i decided to backtrack to the howard train station and go home.
it was such a nice walk, though. i discovered lots of places i didn't know existed, and i was reminded of why i love this city so much. i've spent five years of my life, plus this summer, in this city...and i still have so much to discover about it. this place will never get old. i'll never know all of it...but i must at least try.
why didn't i do this earlier this summer? why didn't i discover all this stuff, discover this amazing walk, back in may? now it's almost august, and i'm leaving town in less than two weeks.
at least i can file it away...for the future.
