Word to the wise

Once a year, it gets crowded down on Dearborn Street. The annual Printers Row Book Fair brings in 150 booksellers from across the country to set up shop in the street and an estimated 90,000 bibliophiles who pack the sidewalks. Some 200 author panels, readings and signings are scattered over the five blocks of the South Loop. The whole thing can be daunting, which is why we’ve provided some of the best strategies for hitting the fair, getting what you want, and beating the crowds.

On the cheap, on the street
The increasing popularity of the fair has forced the trend away from rare antique books to booksellers dumping inventory and promoting new titles for as much as 80 percent off. Chicago’s own Bookworks (3444 N Clark St) carries rare and out-of-print books, but they’ll hawk 1,000 new and used titles all for $3 each.

“You don’t want to lose a $100 book to a thunderstorm,” explains Bookworks owner Bob Roschke.

Adam Brent, owner of Pennyworth Books (3920 W Armitage Ave), combats the capricious Chicago weather with easily deconstructed metal cases. The custom-built display effectively re-creates Pennyworth Books in the street. All of the 10,000-plus titles will go for $5 each.

Scratching the niche
Aside from nabbing discounted books, you can also get books from smaller presses not typically available in chains from niche booksellers from around the country. Midwest sellers are well represented: The offerings range from everything Abe, courtesy of Chicago’s own Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, to rare Asian titles from Park Ridge’s Bridge of Dreams. Bill Butts, owner of Galena’s Main Street Fine Books and Manuscripts, won’t even be bringing books. One of the largest autograph dealers in the Midwest, Butts will display his wares in D-ring binders. “Our booth is so different from everyone else’s that we tend to get swamped,” Butts says, “and we’ll get people lined up half a dozen deep to look at our binders.”

Bringing it home
Several local presses, literary journals and organizations partly responsible for raising the literary profile of Chicago will be on hand. Check out the fantasy and horror books from Twilight Tales, short story collections from Other Voices and up-and-coming writers toiling for Young Chicago Authors.

Chicago-based Lake Claremont Press, which publishes regional histories and guidebooks, will sell 30 of its titles at up to 80 percent off. A handful of Lake Claremont authors will be there to sign books: Karen Hanson, author of Today’s Chicago Blues, will sign on Saturday while Blues Fest jams in Grant Park; on Sunday, Kathie Bergquist will sign A Field Guide to Gay and Lesbian Chicago.

Joining in
Aside from shopping, the fair offers a chance to connect with Chicago’s writing community, particularly its varied writing collectives.

“We get new members that have never heard of us that stumble onto us at the fair,” says Whitney Scott of Tall Grass Writer’s Guild, a community service for writers at any level that hosts formal readings and open mikes, and publishes anthologies. Tall Grass, its booth festooned with flowers, will give away seed packets to the first 50 buyers of its new anthology, A Walk Through My Garden. 

This may be the only time to connect with some of Chicago’s smallest operations, like Illuminated Lantern, publisher of one interactive fiction title a year. “Spending the day outside talking about books, Chicago, the World’s Fair, meeting people and browsing the other tables when time permits...I do love going to this fair,” says Peter Nepstad, author of 1893: A World’s Fair Mystery, an interactive adventure game and story on CD-ROM.

Closing time
Once your bag is filled to capacity, it’s probably best to seek shelter in one of the bars along Printers Row and dodge the bottleneck at the children’s tent on the south end of Dearborn. Kasey’s Tavern (701 S Dearborn St) is known as a writerly hangout, the perfect place to pull up a chair, compare finds and heft a pint.