SWAP-O-RAMA!
It was a fairly successful Book Swap last night. The Chicago Reader held their first of its kind at The Hideout (which, I realized after eavesdropping at the bar, is owned by a guy who teaches at Jones College Prep, which is one of the schools that visits Chicago Shakespeare Theater, AND it's one of my mom's alma matters!). Although the Swap was a bit cramped, there was some pretty good stuff on the tables. I picked up a few paperbacks, including the orangest copy of A Clockwork Orange that I've ever seen, and even though we already have 2 copies at home, the neon sucked me in and I had to put it in my tote. Among my other tote stuffers were the last book Charles Dickens was writing before he died (a mystery! the book, not his death), a paperback of The Little Friend by Donna Tartt (which I've actually read, but decided to give it another try, to read it this time for the language and characters rather than for the mystery I so erroneously read it for the first time around...FYI if you're a poor sucker looking for a good murder mystery, she never tells you who-done-it. After 600 pages. I could have punched her in the nose. It was two years ago and I'm still mad about it.), and a few other odds and ends. Our friend Jessica got a few interesting things, as well, and after the swapping, we left the Hideout to meet Trevor and the Hunters for some eats at the Handlebar. Delicious.

This weekend is the Printers Row Book Fair, which means that the piles of new (new to us) books on the counter and table and book shelf at home will only continue to get higher. After coming back from Door County last weekend with books from a great little shop we found, and from Trevor's grandpa's library, the stacks were big enough. But after last night, and what I can only hope will be a fruitful trip to the Book Fair tomorrow and Sunday, we may bury ourselves in books! Not a bad way to go, really!

Well, we'll keep you up to day on the weekend, so until then...