Safely arrived in Chicago

Filed under: Travel
3 Comments

I wrote this whole long entry a few days ago about the fact that I was going to be in Chicago, but then I got bogged down and busy and never finished it, so I don't think I ever actually mentioned the trip here.

So, briefly: I'm on vacation from work for a week and a half; I flew to Chicago today; this weekend I'll be helping out at the Kriti Festival; next week I'll be sitting around, reading, relaxing, and trying to get a start on getting caught up on magazine stuff, backlogged email, and the multitude of unfinished journal entries I have lying around.

But right now, I'm totally exhausted and kind of headachey, so I think it's time for me to head off to sleep.

3 Responses to “Safely arrived in Chicago”

  1. Peter Hollo

    Hi Jed,
    You don’t know me from a bar of soap (except that if you did mistake me for one, you might want your eyes checked), but I’m an Aussie who occasionally posts comments here and on other sf types’ blogs/LJs (as frogworth).
    Anyway, I happen to be on holidays in the US at the moment, and we’re in Chicago for the next few days! Kriti Festival sounds cool – but what I’m interested in is finding one or two decent (maybe non-chain) bookstores round here. You’re a visitor too, so maybe you know no more than me, but if you’re aware of anywhere that has a reasonable (new) sf selection, I’d love to know! 🙂

    Enjoy your vacation, and hope you have a good rest! (Oops, it’s late, me off to bed too)

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  2. Jed

    Hi, Peter! Sadly, I don’t know very much about Chicago. I think Mary Anne told me, after seeing your comment here, that she doesn’t know of any remaining sf specialty bookshops in the Chicago area, after the well-known one (the name of which I’m blanking on) closed. I’m sure there are plenty of chain bookstores here–but I’m guessing those are pretty easy to find if you want to.

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  3. Peter Hollo

    Yeah, that well-known one I knew about, and was sad to miss it – but I visited those two awesome ones in SF (Borderlands) and Berkeley (The Other Change of Hobbit), so I’m pretty happy with that! And Chicago has Quimby’s and Chicago Comics, and great record stores…

    Today, we went down to the University of Chicago area and visited the Seminary Co-Op, which is an amazing academic bookstore, and 57th Street Books, their more generalist store around the corner(ish) which actually has a rather upstanding sf section.
    Other than that, the Borders on Michigan has a pretty decent sf department, with new Pyr titles on display and such, but I’m a bit peeved with the way Borders (and B&N) have taken over – there’s some ridiculous number of them around this city, and most of them seem to have exactly the same MOR selection. I kinda think that one or two big ones would mean more interesting stuff could be stocked, instead of spreading the same dull stuff around a whole lot, which actually look bigger on the outside than they really are – SIDRATs 😉

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