A Chicago indie bookstore opens in a glittering Magnificent Mile mall. So are bookstores back?
CHICAGO - 'Twas a cold December day when, trudging through the vast expanse of the 900 North Michigan Shops, passing Gucci and hand-woven silk fabrics I could never afford, I noticed the strangest of welcome sights. It was a modest reminder that sometimes things get better. It was the time of year to believe so. Because there, on the fifth floor, after four escalator rides, two stories above where Santa now sits, tucked into the back of the mall, beyond the artisan food hall, and alongside an eyeglass frame boutique, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but, gasp - is that a bookstore?
Not the warmest of bookstores, not the largest.
But yes, a wall of new fiction, tables stacked high with best-sellers, a generous children's section, an area for art books, another for nonfiction - it's a ... a bookstore?
How, on tony Michigan Avenue,
