UChicago College Admissions

The late Saul Bellow— author, Nobel prize winner, professor of English, and chairman of the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought— at a book-signing in the university’s bookstore for his novel “Humboldt’s Gift” in 1975.

From the photography archives of the Chicago Maroon.

Book love: caring for your personal library

The University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center is celebrating their love of books and Book Preservation Week, April 21-21, by sharing their knowledge with you! Whether your library has many leather bound books and smells of rich mahogany, or you’re working mostly with Manga and paperbacks, their blog shares some tips for keeping your volumes in order and preserved for many years to come.

Tom Bissell

The Creative Writing Dept.’s visiting writers series is bringing Tom Bissell to campus on Tuesday Feb 19th. He’ll be reading from his book about ‘The Room’, the worst film of all time (Not our opinion. We lifted the words straight off the CW website.) Tom has written seven books. He won the Rome Prize and a 2010 Guggenheim fellowship. He has a column for Harper’s Magazine. He is a contributor for the New Yorker and serves as Grantland’s Video Game Critic. He co-wrote Gears of War:Judgement. Hence, the picture.

On cold days like today, we just want to remind you of one word: summer.

School starts soon!! Which books will you be reading this winter quarter?

cleanasthemorning:

my books for next quarter came and i’m unreasonably excited and i want to read them all now

We’re not in Printers Row, but a book fair is certainly our idea of a great summer festival.

Overheard at the Book Parade

[Books are being placed on the Faculty Writers table after a symbolic block-long journey from the old Seminary Co-Op to its new location]

“Jonathan Lear, A Case for Irony.” Polite applause.

“Ken Warren, What Was African American Literature?” More polite applause.

“John Boyer, Karl Lueger.” Louder applause. “I love you, Dean Boyer!” shouts a bespectacled young man. “You’re my hero!”

“Theo van den Hout, The Elements of Hittite.” The crowd goes wild. “Hittite!” someone yells. “Yeah!”

What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

“

—	Carl Sagan, AB’54, SB’55, SM’56, PhD’60 Big thanks to the JUChicago Tumblog, who noted this awesome quote on our dino-Sagan photo!

Stop by the Reg’s book sale this week for awesome deals on hardbacks, paperbacks, CDs, and “miscellaneous materials” (whatever those are— if you get some, SEND US A PHOTO. We hope it’s cats.)

kcarenwilson:

Paper punches, verso. Via Google Books.

uchicagomag:

Hyde Park bookstore ads, 1971–1972

From back issues of the short-lived weekly Chicago Rap!, a newspaper “published each Thursday by students at the University of Chicago.”

—> See more photos

uchicagomag:

Writers’ blocks

From the archives—Since it’s Book Lovers Day, we’re revisiting novels with a UChicago backdrop.

—> Read the story and see the list

(Illustration by Allen Carroll)

The Book Thief

“Otto Funk, kleptomaniac, “crank, and dynamitard,” in the words of the Chicago Tribune, was for the year 1885 undoubtedly the best-known graduate of the University of Chicago—the Old University of Chicago, that is, founded in 1857 at Cottage Grove Avenue and 35th Street and forerunner of the current institution. Three years after his graduation in 1882, more than 2,000 books stolen from the Chicago Public Library were discovered—some 100 in Funk’s apartment in the Prairie Avenue neighborhood and the rest in a relative’s barn in Bridgeport. The city’s chief librarian claimed that it was the largest embezzlement of its kind in US history.”

We don’t condone book-stealing, but we have a soft spot for this alum, who’s passion for books led to some illicit acquisitions. Read more here.

Chicago Bookstores

If you’re a UChicagoan, chances are you enjoy an afternoon spent curled up in a bookstore. Here are our favorite haunts in the city:

The Seminary Co-Op + 57th St. Books: Hyde Park staples, these two locations have treasure trove hallways and plenty of UChicagoy things to read. Students always get their Hume and Sosc books from the same place in the Sem Co-Op, and the floor is tread by all who have come before (but it’s moving this summer - so catch it before it does!)
Quimby’s: a Wicker Park store filled with cool comic booklets, books, cards, magazines and a photobooth.
Bookworks: a used and rare books haven, this is hidden right up in Wrigleyville behind all the Cubs hang-outs.
Myopic: one of the biggest and oldest book stores in the city, in the heart of Wicker Park, it’s packed with new and used books and open until 11pm.
Powell’s: Plenty of locations (there’s one in Hyde Park!) and great prices. Like, really. Really.
Open Books: non-for-profit social venture with used books and colorful shelves.
Unabridged: in Lakeview, and there are handwritten personal recommendations for favorite books everywhere.

Can someone please do this in the Stacks in the Reg?