Powell’s

Chicago


This leading store for used books can get you just about any title ever published. Shelf after heaving shelf props up the well-arranged stock. Staff sometimes put a box of free books outside by the entrance. They may be semi-tattered or in a foreign language, but you may find a treasure to take away.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Chicago attractions

1. Museum of Science & Industry

0.31 MILES

The MSI is the largest science museum in the Western hemisphere and a place to completely geek out. Highlights include a WWII German U-boat nestled in an…

2. Robie House

0.41 MILES

Of the numerous buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright designed around Chicago, none is more famous or influential than Robie House. Because its horizontal…

3. Garden of the Phoenix

0.44 MILES

The enchanted Garden of the Phoenix floats in Jackson Park. Birds flit through the sunlight, turtles swim in the lagoons, and stone-cut lanterns dot the…

4. Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

0.48 MILES

The building's exterior will send sculpture lovers into paroxysms of joy – the facade bears 24 life-size religious figures and 53 smaller ones, with even…

5. Oriental Institute

0.49 MILES

The University of Chicago's famed archaeologists – Indiana Jones supposedly was based on one – cram their headquarters with antiquities they've unearthed…

6. Hyde Park Hair Salon

0.6 MILES

You can visit Barack Obama’s barber Zariff and the bulletproof-glass-encased presidential barber chair at the Hyde Park Hair Salon. Staff don't mind if…

7. Smart Museum of Art

0.61 MILES

Named after the founders of Esquire magazine, who contributed the start-up money, this is the official fine-arts museum of the University of Chicago. The…

8. William Rainey Harper Memorial Library

0.62 MILES

Once inside the building, head to the East Tower's 3rd floor, where the reading room (called the Cathey Learning Center) offers a terrific chill-out spot…