Best new niche bookstores
Can’t decide what to read next? Skip the behemoth that sells everything and visit one of these genre-specific bookstores.
For comics lovers
Howling Pages
Most comic book shops offer 80 percent Marvel and DC, with a smattering of indie comics and graphic novels. Alain Park’s store, which opened last year, flips that. “We’re focused on the independent side,” says Park, who has a master’s in fine arts and grew up reading European comics like Asterix and The Adventures of Tintin. “We also have a huge international focus, with a lot of Japanese and European books.”
Owner’s pick: Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton. “It’s a nonfiction memoir about human trauma and land use. It’s incredibly observant.” 4354 N. Milwaukee Ave., Portage Park — Mary Wisniewski
For stage enthusiasts
The Understudy
This bookstore-café hybrid, which opened in March, is a theater-themed trove of play scripts, biographies, novels, art books, and other texts that will tickle your dramatic fancy. Founded by husband-and-husband duo and DePaul theater grads Danny Fender and Adam Crawford, it’s the perfect spot to have an inner monologue while enjoying Metric coffee and Phlour pastries.
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Owners’ pick: Ensemble-Made Chicago: A Guide to Devised Theater by Chloe Johnston and Coya Paz Brownrigg. Says Fender: “It’s an excellent window into the scrappy, collaborative, constantly inventive spirit that has always made Chicago theater great.” 5531 N. Clark St., Andersonville — Kelly Aiglon
For environmentalists
Skunk Cabbage Books
Specializing in nature titles, Skunk Cabbage is more than a bookshop. It hosts events, like walks around the neighborhood to identify local trees and plants. “I wanted to have a place for people to think about things they can do to make their community a little better,” says Ren Dean, who opened the shop in April. It was also important to Dean, who is nonbinary, to feature LGBTQ+ authors as a response to the recent backlash against schools and libraries teaching about gender identity.
Owner’s pick: The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. “She brings you on a journey through the mushroom trade and brings in ideas about globalization and capitalism.” 2826 N. Milwaukee Ave., Logan Square — M.W.