Bikes, books, burbs

So now I have a working bike and I did my first biking-and-Metra trip of the year Saturday! (And — importantly — even remembered the bungee cord for the train.) I took Wilson, a fairly pleasant biking street, going east from my neighborhood, but cut it close, seeing the train go by when I was just getting to Damen, so still about 4 blocks away, oops. I could have gone to the Sulzer library, still haven’t this year, but didn’t want to go back west or pick up more books as I was heading to two libraries and a bookstore. I biked a few blocks to a coffeeshop I don’t visit often enough (with Louisiana-style food that looks great and I haven’t tried), Spoken, which is a walk-up window only now and was getting a lot of business on the 50-ish, cloudy day. I got a cafe au lait and drank it sitting on a ledge down the block, enjoying a book of comedic essays and realizing, when an older man passed by and said something like “Must be a good book!” that I’d missed these interactions with strangers. (But there’s definitely annoying ones reading in public, though.)

I biked south a few blocks to check out Dovetail brewery, another I hadn’t visited during the pandemic. Wasn’t sure if they had indoor seating now. No, it was a patio area in front of the main entrance, and a beer garden in the parking lot. I opted for the beer garden and a picnic table with the Brown Line L rattling overhead and picked one of the four beers on tap (still can’t figure QR codes, so I just go to the website, but it was different from what the garden had), a Maibock. It tasted really good sitting outside, maybe a touch of the outdoor festival feel I completely missed out on last year.

I was on time for my train two hours after my intended one and headed to Winnetka to observe Independent Bookstore Day at The Book Stall, a great bookstore I hadn’t been to since probably 2019. Generally only allowing 5 customers at a time; luckily I didn’t have too long a wait. The weather had significantly improved by then and I thought I should bike around the suburbs — this is also my first suburban biking of the year — but I spent a while inside browsing. Either the signed book section was moved or doesn’t exist anymore; I used to like to pick a book from there. Not many signed copies without bookstore events anymore, I realized, though that’s not the only way stores get signed copies. I’d skimmed the entire poetry section, was choosing between a $20 and an unpriced anthology, then saw a few copies of a book with no writing on the spine. I pulled it out and it was from an author I didn’t know, poems featuring the Midwest (even mentioned the giant ketchup bottle — that’s in IL near St. Louis — on the back) and it was a signed book, and only $12!

I biked over to the Winnetka-Northfield library, beautiful rows of daffodils in front. I looked at the excellent new book section and picked the first in a new mystery series that’s set in Cape Cod; I’ve somehow read dozens of cozy mysteries without reading any Cape Cod ones yet (a popular, okay, cliched location for these books). I browsed the poetry section upstairs and realized I couldn’t even remember if I’d gone upstairs on numerous visits to the library. I tend to just hit the dazzling selection of new books at the richer suburban libraries, to be honest, and not dive into the collection, except to look at their local history section.

It was well after 4 and I needed to get to the Wilmette library closing at 5 and I couldn’t tell how long the bike trip was between them because my phone’s internet quit working in the library (didn’t work in Wilmette either), weird. They’re 3 Metra stations apart, so a mile and a half? Two miles? I made it into Wilmette’s at 4:50, just enough time to look up and grab a nonfiction book I’ve been searching for since fall and Chicago and Evanston’s whole systems — I can usually find anything between them — didn’t have. It was there, and I grabbed a new poetry book too (all of this was to reach at least 30 poetry books to read during National Poetry Month). Then I spent the rest of the beautiful late afternoon inside at Panera to use wifi and write my previous post. I should have done two to catch up. I thought about switching trains at Clybourn to take the UP-NW line to the Park Ridge spots where I could use wifi and write another piece, but the thought of consuming more coffee or any beverage, really, was unpleasant. I took UP-N back to transfer to UP-NW and bike home in a little rain, bouncing off the walls from the caffeine by then. I stayed up and read poetry.