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LOGAN SQUARE — A book store from a local literacy nonprofit has joined Logan Square’s Milwaukee Avenue.
Open Books Logan Square opened Tuesday at 2068 N. Milwaukee Ave. after months of renovations and planning. The shop carries 60,000 books across two floors and will eventually host readings, poetry slams and book fairs, according to a news release. It’s open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. weekends.
RELATED: Open Books Bringing Huge Nonprofit Bookstore To Logan Square
The Logan Square store is Open Books’ third brick-and-mortar. The nonprofit also runs book stores in Pilsen and in the West Loop.
“This new store represents an opportunity to not only provide Logan Square access to a broad array of titles, but to encourage another diverse area of the city to support our community-driven literacy work,” Eric Johnson, Open Books executive director, said in a news release.
Founded in 2006, Open Books aims to foster literacy among Chicago children and families through reading and writing workshops and book grants for underserved schools and nonprofit partners. Sales from the book stores support the nonprofit’s programs.
Like the other two Open Books stores, the Logan Square outpost offers a wide-ranging selection of new and used donated books at reasonable prices, from fiction and children’s books to academic reference books and classic medieval literature.
The store is also a book depository where customers can drop off books they no longer want.
Open Books chose Logan Square for its latest location because the neighborhood lacks book stores compared to nearby communities, Johnson told Block Club last year. City Lit, 2523 N. Kedzie Blvd., is the only other book store in Logan Square.
Logan Square is also home to many Open Books supporters, nonprofit leaders found.
“As purchasing behavior migrated online during the lockdown and shipping information on Open Books customers began to roll in, we realized how crucial the residents of the ‘Blue Line Corridor’ were to our organization,” Johnson said in the release.
Credit: InstagramOpen Books Logan Square will bring new life to a Milwaukee Avenue stretch long lined with vacancies, an issue exacerbated by the pandemic, nonprofit leaders said in the release.
The book store is across the street from a long-vacant CVS. Independently owned grocery store Farmer’s Best Market was poised to take over the site in 2021, but those plans have stalled.
“As neighborhood residents continue to re-establish connections amid a wind-down of pandemic restrictions, the store anticipates the growing need for a literary space that brings community members together,” nonprofit leaders said in the release.
The Open Books team has been busy building out the Milwaukee Avenue storefront since announcing the Logan Square location in early 2022.
Local artist Nick “Sick” Fisher transformed the shop’s exterior. Fisher is known around town for his dotted storefront murals.
Neighbors can support more improvements by donating to the nonprofit’s GoFundMe, which has raised more than $23,000.
“Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square has been longing for a space like Open Books for a while — and we are excited to welcome them to the neighborhood,” Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) said in the release.
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