WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — A few weeks ago, Lynn Bagley watched a heartening interaction in her Washington Heights bookstore, Undercover Books, among three students from nearby Percy L. Julian High School.
“They were fist bumping and book talking and helping someone find a book,” Bagley said. “I was sure they knew each other and planned to meet here, but I learned that they were completely random strangers. I could’ve floated on that for days! But you need a physical space for something like that to happen.”
It speaks to the community-building potential of bookstores even among, say, digital-native teens who grew up connecting and reading on screens — and who often stumble upon Undercover Books, 1232 W. 103rd St., as a place to charge their phones.
For Bagley and her husband and co-owner, Todd Zaruba, opening the rare and used bookstore in October was a shared lifelong dream. Their aim was never just to provide someone’s next great fiction read, but to build a cultural and social hub for their South Side neighbors.
“We wanted to bring together all our loves and make a space where we felt happy, fulfilled and comfy that brings others in and hopefully makes them happy, fulfilled and connected,” Bagley said. “There’s community that builds around books.”
Keeping The Dream Alive
The brick storefront’s custom round window bears a resemblance to a magnifying glass — a comparison that becomes all the more fitting when customers learn that Bagley is also a private investigator whose office resides in the middle of the shop.
A diagonally cut wooden door opens into a long, warmly lit space with mobile, caged bookshelves comprising a central aisle. The collection of books on the right wall begins with “All Things Theater,” a nod to Zaruba’s and Bagley’s first love.
The couple met in 1997 as stage actors in Chicago. That year, they and some friends launched the Billy Goat Experiment Theatre Company (which still produces a festival show every other year). The two started dating six years later, when they learned they shared a goal to open a used bookstore.
Alas, “life gets in the way of dreams sometimes,” Zaruba said.
He left the financially unstable world of full-time acting to become a social worker in 1997, balancing that with acting before a long career in information technology.
Around the same time, Bagley left her acting career to apprentice with a licensed private investigator, getting her license in 2002 and striking out on her own in 2011. She’s a full-time investigator for the Illinois Innocence Project and continues to do private investigator work on the side.
The couple had a son, and never let go of their bookstore dream. After consulting with the owner of Rogers Park used bookstore The Armadillo’s Pillow on how they built their stock, Zaruba and Bagley put the word out to friends and family that they were collecting for an eventual shop.
“The minute we made it known, people came out of the woodwork,” Bagley said. “Someone’s grandmother died, and here was her collection of books, some really rare. Friends donated books or people would give them to my mother. It wasn’t just in Chicago either. We had people from out of state picking up books for us at estate sales.”
Before long, books filled the couple’s Andersonville apartment, many bearing margin notes and inscriptions, some with old photos tucked inside.
In 2007, Zaruba and Bagley bought the 103rd Street building that would become Undercover Books and moved into the apartment above it. Construction on the storefront, which had been vacant for two decades, began in 2008 and progressed in stages.
Between raising their son and working their day jobs, the couple was in no hurry financially or emotionally to open the store, Zaruba said. At least they had a full basement and plenty of book-safe storage tubs.
“It became like a hoarder situation, books up to the ceiling reaching all the way back to the washing machine,” Zaruba recalled.
A Steep Learning Curve
Once opening the store the couple commenced the mad race of categorizing their books — a steep learning curve for two people with no experience in bookstores, much less retail.
They quickly realized they had a dearth of donations by authors of color (and indeed, these titles move quickest at Undercover Books). They learned that it’s less visually confusing to stock fewer books on their shelves, since many customers come in just to browse.
Zaruba and Bagley also started a book club of two to expand beyond their reading preferences. They’re reading the Dark Elf trilogy, a fantasy series by R. A. Salvatore.
“The jury’s still out,” Zaruba said.
Meanwhile, Zaruba and Bagley actively work to make Undercover Books a social and cultural hub — hence the bookshelves on wheels. They exhibit rotating work by local artists, including Illinois Innocence Project exonerees, and host children’s storytime 9 a.m. Tuesdays. Writers hold book signings and neighborhood book clubs and a “Dungeons and Dragons” group convene at the shop. A poetry group that hosts monthly readings at Undercover Books also gathers each Saturday for an hour of book stalking, in which each member picks up a book that inspires them and reads a few lines aloud.
Once a month, Zaruba and Bagley clear her desk of old case files and criminal investigation volumes and assemble the first few pieces of a community puzzle. In April, the store will launch a monthly “Third Thursdays” gathering, encouraging creatives to come and mingle.
Sales have ticked up each month since the shop opened, the couple said. African studies, fiction, self-help and spirituality are among the bestsellers. Zaruba and Bagley are always in the market for used-book donations.
Since the pandemic, indie bookstores are on the rise again, according to Fortune magazine — though they face a tough climb. A mile and a half down the road in Beverly, longtime used bookstore Bookies is struggling to stay afloat as Amazon and big-box stores like Walmart and Target lure shoppers away.
Zaruba and Bagley, who have bought many books from Bookies over the years, said they recommend the store to customers who come to Undercover Books looking for a title they don’t have. And they’re optimistic about the financial viability of their business, which they’ve designed with low overhead to “withstand the challenges of the market,” Zaruba said.
“Our primary motivation is not profit, and as long as we can continue to generate enough income to keep the lights on, we will continue to operate the store and attempt to build a vibrant, welcoming community in a neighborhood that deserves it,” he said.
When asked if they’d consider opening an online bookstore to pad sales, Bagley was steadfast.
“No, because so much of our dream is the physical,” she said. “It’s the theater of it, of people and the improv of having them come in and their interactions. We’ve watched some truly amazing connections here. That’s what this is about.”
Support Local News!
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods. Already subscribe? Click here to gift a subscription, or you can support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.
Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:
