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City Lit Books
City Lit Books: An inviting Chicago bookstore with diverse titles and welcoming staff.
3.4
Retail Store
$$
City Lit Books: An inviting Chicago bookstore with diverse titles and welcoming staff.
City Lit Books, located at 2523 N Kedzie Blvd in Chicago, is a welcoming bookstore with a generous space and a broad selection of recent titles, including fiction and a biographies shelf, and features reviewer-noted sections like Arab American Heritage Month. Reviews praise friendly staff, a lively, well-attended atmosphere, and occasional author events. Some notes mention pricing labels not always visible and mixed staff experiences.
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Curated selection of recent fiction, non-fiction, biographies, and essay collections, with special themed displays.
Hosting guest speakers and author talks to engage the local literary community.
Convenient hold services for in-store pickup, with confirmation via text for easy retrieval.
Offering cute and literary-themed gifts and accessories alongside books.
Providing a welcoming space for readers to browse, discover, and connect in a vibrant neighborhood setting.
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Overall rating
Tristan Novak
Great bookstore -- tons of options and recent titles of all kinds. I especially liked their essay collection right at the front door! My only qualm with City Lit is everyonce and a while you will pick up a paperback that you would assume to be in the 15-20 dollar range (or somewhere above or below there) and it turns out to be +40$. Not all the books have labels on them with their cost which is okay, I just wasn't expecting a 200 page essay paperback book to be in the 40$ range.
jazzy uruchima
I love this book store, but 2 members of my family have had unpleasant experiences with the staff. When my mom went to pick up my Christmas gift a staff member told her it was "impossible" and there's "no way she has a hold for that book". The staff member didn't even want to check despite the fact my mom had a confirmation text. She rushed over straight from work to get the book, and the cashier was so rude. After a moment the cashier realized she was wrong and they did in fact have the book on hold and apologized.
Cherilyn Barber
I really loved this place. Traveled over three hours to visit a couple of places. This store is so beautiful and inviting and the staff were super helpful and friendly. Lots of cute merch too. My favorite buys of the day came from here
Malcolm Earhart
Nice smallish bookstore. They're new prints, and unfortunately for me, almost entirely fiction. They had a small section of mostly biographies that I found a few interesting titles in. I ended up only purchasing a gift for someone else. If I had more time I might've stuck around for their guest speaker/author how was setting up when I walked in. I did have a pleasant conversation with the cashier, who confirmed I had good taste in bars and breweries. I'll think of them when I'm ready to read/buy some more Olivia Butler and hangout down the street.
Ooni J
Loved the selection, especially the section highlighting Arab American Heritage Month in April. The space was larger than I was expecting, the store goes in quite deep. There were a lot of people in the store on the Saturday that I visited, which was great to see. Will be back!!
