Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Events

Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Events

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Independent Bookstore Day 2025

Saturday, April 26, 2025
All Day

Indie Bookstores Throughout Chicagoland

We celebrated Chicago's many wonderful indie bookstores by...buying books at some of them. We visited stores in Chicago, Aurora, St. Charles, Glen Ellyn, Oak Park, Berwyn, and Geneva. ChiLoveBooks did a phenomenal job promoting and tracking all of the happenings. Many people used the site's map to route out a bookstore crawl. There was at least one bus tour. Most stores offered discounts and giveaways. Big crowds everywhere, a great show of support from our community.

On Indie Bookstore Day 2025, Aurora's Yellow Bird Books offered a spin to win prizes, including gift certificates, tote bags, and books. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

Owner Karen Nicholas opened Yellow Bird Books in October 2023. She poses here with CLHOF Board Director Richard Guzman and his wife Linda Bonifas-Guzman. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

Huge crowds filled Harvey's Tales in Geneva. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

Harvey's Tales's bookseller, Janine, poses with CLHOF's Don Evans before he purchases Rus Bradburd's All the Dreams We've Dreamed.

Town House Books has been in business in St. Charles for more than 50 years. Owner David Hunt, pictured with bookseller Sarah Marcheschi, has owned the store for the past 33 years. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

Town House Books rests on a pretty corner in Geneva's business district. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

Jessica Herbik and Sarah Philips, of Scholastic Books, were doing the bookstore crawl, and volunteered to take CLHOF videos and pictures at a bunch of stops, including this one at The Bookstore in Glen Ellyn. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

A regular stream of customers visited downtown Glen Ellyn's charming The Bookstore. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

Justin Valas, a third-generation Japanese-American, organizes Restoried Bookshop's shelves by identity. The Albany Park store opened late last year. (Photo by Amy Danzer)

Authors Billy Lombardo and Michael Zapata shop at Restoried Bookshop on Indie Bookstore Day 2025. (Photo by Amy Danzer)

The Dandelion Bookshop opened in February of this year, filling a void left by the departure of the beloved The Book Table late last year. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

Jamie and Kurt Ericson, owners of Dandelion, offer a nice Local Authors selection. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

The Pile opened on Roosevelt Road, a bit east of Harlem, in February of 2024. It sells both new and used titles. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

Owner Rebecca Lewis works the counter at The Pile, which also sells coffee, tea, muffins, and other cafe-like goodies. (Photo by Donald G. Evans)

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Chicago Literary Hall of Fame
Email: Don Evans
4043 N. Ravenswood Ave., #222
Chicago, IL 60613
773.414.2603