Myopic Books

Cozy bookstore but not small! Many different little nooks and passages to different sections. The prices are great because all the books are gently used! Pretty good selection except slightly thin on the science section. Unfortunately, I found several Goodall, Fossey, Galdikas, and Mead books in the «Nature» section rather than the «Anthropology» section… but that’s okay. All in all a really cool bookstore with great prices.

My favorite bookstore in Chicago. Great/​varied selection, well priced, excellent condition. There’s a couple places you can hang if you wanna sit and read, and their Monday Night Experimental Music Series is GREAT! Beware: the music can get pretty crazy to most ears. But it’s free and often very high level creative music. Also, the folks that work there may be kinda «hipster,» but they’re knowledgable and helpful too if you’re simply straight with them. They’re like the guys who work in the record store in High Fidelity, but it’s books. Rock on!
Oh yeah… They buy your used books from you too, if they’re in good condish and not your sister’s stapled together, handmade PJ Harvey fanzine… (nothing against PJ Harvey. She’s awesome)

Gorgeous shop! Inside is a wide variety of books, from classic philosophy to global studies, political science, communism, Native American studies, African and African American culture, LGBTQ history — just about anything you could think of. I could have browsed all day. This store has 3 floors jam-​packed with new and used books. Maze-​like bookshelves and vintage posters on the walls set the mood.
Large bags and backpacks are not allowed inside, and there is a no-​cellphone rule (though I used my phone without being scolded).
One complaint: I wish there had been comfortable chairs to sit and read in. There were some tables and chairs upstairs, but they were wooden and not great for lounging.

Great selection of old books, reminds me of something out of Harry Potter. However, I didn’t really see anything too special about it.

Cool store, really, it’s great. And all of the times I’ve visited over the years, the employees are helpful and courteous. Except today. The tall 30ish guy with a beard and hipster haircut is a real D; so pretentious and snide. Sorry, guy, for not passing your hipster litmus test. I was just trying to be a customer. Maybe next time, you can come down from your register pedestal-​on-​high, face up, and opine like a man rather than make verbal jabs as you turn away from me. Enjoy your sad über underground counter culture lifestyle. I hope karma squares you up and delivers a fist straight to your nose. BTW, your haircut looks better on that guy from Maroon 5.

Awesome neighborhood, fun layout, and books for all interests. We picked up a couple cooking books and looked at the photography section. Make sure to check out Stan’s Donuts around the corner. Phenomenal Nutella filled donut.

Great place to browse a selection of books, many of them second hand. Inside it’s like a maze, with bookshelves built from reclaimed wood. They’ve got cute chairs and sofas you can settle into for reading. Great place to people watch, as this is a hipster’s paradise!
Reminds me very much of the Shakespeare & Co bookstore in Paris, very lovely!

The best review I have read about this place is that it’s kind of like a TARDIS. Looks small on the outside… but once you’re on the inside get ready for an adventure. This USED BOOKSHOP is absolutely fantastic and one of my most favorite places to get lost in. It has a lot of character, residual old book smell, and just a feeling of comfort and being close to so many lost treasures/​friends. The books are nicely sorted, to the extent that they can be, and it is incredibly easy to lose hours, if not days, just exploring the aisles.

I LOVE used bookstores and this is a good one! They have a large selection and a friendly staff. There were a ton of people there — something I am not used to in a used bookstore. I was hard to get around everyone and it felt a little claustrophobic.

My literary friend and I purposely took a subway ride up to this bookstore on our weekend visit to the city, and it was pretty worth it just to see/​smell so many books in one space. As others have noted, it is a large bookstore, though somehow cramped based on layout. There is quite a large selection, but we were a little disappointed in the lack of more vintage, collection-​worthy books. I don’t live in the city, so I can’t speak to stock changing, or anything like that, but as far as used bookstores go, this place seems to have a really wide variety, is well-​organized, and doesn’t try to capitalize on having newly released titles.

I think this book store epitomizes my notions of Wicker Park. It’s what I like but the way in which it is carried out is not positive. The cell phone policy is understandable but grating.
This is a quaint, but massive store with great collections in most sections. Though, it does seem like the Philosophy and Sociology sections are lacking. And they need to move the Sociology section to a place where people can actually browse.
However the browsing of the whole store is a blast. I end up buying something every time I go in here. It’s worth a visit.

creative use of space!
trendy hipster book store but certainly has some gems and is very unique. i come from a city where we cherish paper books so it’s nice to see a space in such an established city caring for traditional reading sources. go chicago!
tip: no bathroom

So – I just want to clarify what this store is. When we googled it, I had imagined something very similar to Powell’s in Portland, Oregon, which is a gigantic used & new book/​game/​cards/​journals/​artwork type store. This, however, is strictly a used book store. That is not to say that it isn’t a very interesting and cool place to visit, but it’s just more of a specific type of shopper I think. My mom has a passion for used books and I can imagine her walking in here, getting lost, and needing to be pulled from the store at closing.
The store itself looks small from the street, but is quite tardis-​like on the inside, with many different floors and little nooks and crannies even within each story. The staff was incredibly friendly and the ambiance within the store was welcoming and cozy. I think if I were to need something specific, or just wanted to browse a certain genre of book, I would come here again.

Really? Wanted to give this place a try but they tried to snatch my bag as soon as I entered, like some thief. No thanks!

Awesome bookstore in which to spend an afternoon moseying around, with clearly labeled sections and signs explaining what to find where — apparently there is a ‘no cell phone’ rule, but I walked around listening to music while browsing for a while, which didn’t seem to be a problem. Had a very cool feel to it, and very reasonable prices.

They have a decent Chicago history section. The layout is cool. They have many rare books too. How could you not give a place like this 5 stars.

This place is huge. Not just huge, ginormous. There are books for days. It’s got that musty book smell all over the place. It extends to a second floor. Which is huge as well and smelly. There’s a basement also full of books. It’s cold and musty.
It’s a huge bookstore. Too huge.
It’s hard to make sense of anything. How it’s organized. Where anything is. It’s too big. I easily got overwhelmed with the amount of options. You could spend an entire day here and not get to everything. For me, that’s too much. I don’t need to find the lost works of Sun Tzu, which I’m sure was in the basement somewhere. I would have preferred an easier organization method.
If you are a serious bookworm and are looking for some lost treasure, this place is your heaven. If you are a bit more casual than that, this place will likely overwhelm you with both the the sheer amount of books and the smell.

As a book lover, I want to love this place but I just cannot.
The reason? It makes me feel like I am in a crazy relative’s house. Old and falling apart particle board shelves. It is straight up ugly and I just cannot visually handle this place.
I am all for used book stores. I don’t like to be wasteful – reduce, reuse, recycle, etc. But I just personally could not handle this place. At the risk of sounding cookie and self-​diagnosing myself in a Unilocal review with OCD, this place made me feel out of whack and jangled my organized mind. Slight disorganization, the shelves looked like they would collapse, dank basement dead-​ends; it made me feel claustrophobic and lost at times.
So, if this sort of set-​up does not ring an alarm bell in your head, there is so much to explore and I am sure you could find some really cool gems. Get lost in this place if you can handle it.

I wasn’t too impressed with this place. I’ve heard about this bookstore so I’ve always had a desired to go in and look. The store is jam packed with books from the basement to the third floor. It’s any book lovers dream.
I went searching for some comic books because I’m heading to Comic Con this year and I wanted to have some comics for signing if the artist was going to be there. It took me awhile, but I found one Comic that interested me, Dead Pool. They had a few Marvel ones but the other comic brands, I’ve never heard of before. For the size of their bookstore, I actually think their comic book section was small.
My book wasn’t in good condition and I couldn’t find the price located anywhere. However, I was thinking, «I’ll just get it.» At the register, I was disappointed to find out that book was $ 10 for a used book. The original for that comic was $ 13, so they only knocked off $ 3. The corners were roughed up a bit, so I consider that mediocre condition. For a price comparison, I previously went to Half-​priced books and got two pristine comics of the same size for $ 2.00 each. Those were resale comics, but the books were well-​taken care of.
I don’t think I’ll be going back because I don’t agree with the pricing. However, I can say that this bookstore has a very unique vibe to it and has a great amount of books on its shelves. It would be a good experience to browse if you’d like.

Walked in and immediately saw five books by Murakami. I was instantly pumped about Myopic Books, because Murakami is amazing and any bookstore who prominently displays his novels is alright with me.
Seriously, there are a ton of books here. Yes, a veritable ton of books — probably several — and they are well organized, which is a plus. The store itself is easy to navigate through, which is great for me, because I get lost easily. I liked the reading area upstairs, and if I had more time I would have lazed around up there and read the Murakami book I bought.
The guy at the checkout was nice and had a sarcastic sense of humor, which took me a second to figure out.
Anyway, two thumbs up for Myopic Books.