Chicago’s Hyde Park is perfectly situated and laid out for a day-long “book crawl.” For the avid bibliophile, this college community that surrounds the University of Chicago as well as several smaller institutions such as the McCormick Seminary, is always humming with the latest in intellectual culture. Just walking around down there always makes me feel smarter!

Starting at the Seminary Co-Op is always the best as it’s massive selection thousands unique titles crammed into the tiny basement of an academic building on South University Avenue will wear even the brightest mind out after a couple of hours of browsing. Bring your watch though, the small twisting stacks of books have very few duplicate copies and it’s easy to loose yourself for hours upon end in the space of 3 feet of shelving. The Seminary Co-Op is truly a cooperative, and is owned by it’s customers. For a nominal fee you too can join in and get your very own share of the profits and discounts on books.

From the Co-Op wander up the street to 57th street and then down a couple of blocks until you get to 57th St. Books which is part of the same cooperative as the Seminary Co-Op. Where the Co-Op is mostly academic and no-fiction books however, 57th street is a wonder of 5 rooms (again in a basement) of popular culture books, including a large and extensive children’s area. Your Co-Op membership gets you privileges here as well.

After an exhausting beginning at the cooperative stores, stop in to Edwardo’s All-natural pizza for a great piece of organic, all natural pizza – Chicago Style. This place has the traditional deep-dish and stuffed Chicago Style pizza, but with a ‘healthy twist.’ If any pizza weighing over 5 lbs and consisting mostly of cheese could be considered healthy. It’s worth every calorie, however, so go ahead and get the stuffed.

Renewed and rejuvenated by Edwards, finish your day off with stops at the two great used bookstores on 57th St, O’Gerra & Wilson, LTD. and Powell’s Chicago. O’Gerra & Wilson is one of the oldest booksellers in Chicago and a great place to find rare or first editions of books if you’re an avid collector. Powell’s Chicago, which inspired the famous Powell’s Bookstore in Seattle, deals mostly in remainder books and therefore is a great place to find unique and hard-to-find editions of books you though only existed in libraries.

After a full day of intellectual activity on your Book Crawl, you might just be ready to follow it up with a bar crawl. Or perhaps a cupcake crawl?