There was an evening, it was 36 years ago, that I walked up Marion Street from south to north. I had closed up my little used bookstore, The Booksmith, which was smushed into a tiny storefront in the Carleton Hotel.
I had my nose pressed into the plate glass of what was rapidly becoming Barbara’s Bookstore. Carpenters were raising a platform that stretched the length of the very deep store. Painters came and covered every surface in gray.
I suffered an intense booksellers lust and jealousy. Talk about ugly emotions.
To my way of thinking, Barbara’s arrival in Oak Park in 1974 was the start of the village’s urban vibe. This store had a feel to it that was unlike other stores in Oak Park (with, of course, the exception of Val’s).
There was the store itself, cool and understated. Low lighting and green plants and interesting music playing. The store stayed open to 11 p.m. every night. In Oak Park in those days, when the knickknack shops all closed at 5:30, this was radical. The selection was wide and deep with titles you weren’t going to discover in other local bookstores. Yes, sex. And philosophy. And a history section with more than Civil War books, more than just American history. Golly, there were even books by and about homosexual people.
It was a revelation. Those of us who thought that bookstores were supposed to be like Kroch’s & Brentano’s, a Chicago chain of some 15 stores with an outpost on Lake Street, got a rapid reeducation.
Going to Kroch’s was like going to buy books at a CVS. The fluorescent lighting. Aisles lined up in a grid. Getting into a checkout lane to make your purchase. And, trust me, the staff at CVS is warmer and probably knows more about books than the Kroch’s clerks did.
At Barbara’s the staff was cool. Way cooler than me, for certain. They had actually read books and could talk about them. But there was no pressure to buy them. It was like commerce was some odd addendum to the basic purpose of Barbara’s, which was just to hover in this cool, gray place.
These days that old Barbara’s space is home to Ten Thousand Villages. After a few years Barbara’s moved to the prime corner of Lake and Marion. That store never had the same magic to me and shopping at Barbara’s gradually lost its allure.
The staff went from cool to indifferent. Borders opened down the block and Barbara’s lost its claim on vast selection. The ownership changed (who was Barbara anyhow?) and not for the better.
We reported online last week and in print today that Barbara’s owner Don Barliant lost a court battle over a lease dispute and will be vacating the current store shortly. Maybe there will be a new Oak Park Barbara’s, maybe not.
But as one of the commenters on our Web site noted last week, bookstores are better when the owner sits behind the counter, knows the customers, orders the books, works the hours. Don Barliant lives in Santa Fe. That’s nice for him, but Barbara’s feels more likes Kroch’s every year.
Meanwhile we have The Book Table, a genuine local bookstore, right on Lake. On Oak Park Avenue there’s Magic Tree, a grand and quirky kids bookstore, currently celebrating 25 years of literacy.
The book vibe continues to evolve and define the village, even in a post-Barbara’s era.
