Chicago had a great day for Printer’s Row 2015 on Saturday – the largest outdoor lit fest in the Midwest! This is my second year going, and it was equally as awesome as the first. But I didn’t go to any of the events this time; I just spent hours upon hours browsing through the stalls. With these sort of book-buying opportunities, I have only one rule for myself:
Never buy a book you’ve seen before.
Of course I have a never-ending list of books I want to read and/or purchase, but with the unique vendors you see at Printer’s Row, I know I will find books I’ve never seen before and probably will never see again. Independent presses, university presses, independent authors, etc., get way more of my attention (and money) than the stalls like Half Price Books and Powell’s (though I admittedly bought 2 books from Powell’s this year, breaking my rule for one of them). I tend to skip the “bestseller” tents and focus more on the used/old books and smaller presses that I know I can’t find in an average bookstore.
Another nice thing about this weekend was that it rained all day on Sunday, which wasn’t good for the festival, but pretty great for those of us who brought home a stack of books from Saturday. š
My haul:
Chicago by Day and Night: The Pleasure Seeker’s Guide to the Paris of America edited by Paul Durica (This is a reprint of a guide to Chicago from the 1800’s from Northwestern University Press. Also a new tradition for me at Printer’s Row is to buy a Chicago-related book.)
McGraw-Hill Pocket Travel Guide to Paris edited by Dore Ogrizek (A darling little hardcover travel guide form 1955, in full color. Couldn’t resist.)
Burn This Book: PEN Writers on the Power of Language edited by Toni Morrison
Fairies and Fairy Stories: A History by
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Fan Phenomena: The Rocky Horror Picture Show edited by Marisa C. Hayes (University of Chicago Press has a whole series of these based off of different fandoms! I plan to collect more.)
The River by Alessandro Sanna
Rose Read 
4 thoughts on “Printer’s Row 2015”