Page & Spine
An Independent Bookstore · Chicago, Since 2017
Carefully chosen books on Western Avenue. We open the door at ten and close it at seven. Everything on the shelves has been read by someone here.
browse the shelves →Sections
What we carry.
Fiction
Carefully chosen, never algorithmic. Every novel earned its place on the shelf.
Nonfiction
History, science, memoir, and ideas worth sitting with for more than one evening.
Poetry
A small but serious section. Collected works and individual volumes, face-out.
Children
Books that last a lifetime. No licensed characters, no tie-ins.
Chicago Authors
Local voices, local stories. The city writing about and for itself.
Translated Work
Literature that crosses borders. A third of our fiction, by design.
Rare & Used
First editions, out-of-print, and books that came back around.
Special Orders
If we don't have it, we'll find it. Usually within three days.
Staff Picks
Currently on our tables.
- 01.
Stoner—John Williams
A quiet masterpiece on an ordinary life. No one comes out unchanged.
- 02.
Pachinko—Min Jin Lee
Four generations, two countries, one family. She writes like she loves every character.
- 03.
The Overstory—Richard Powers
Nine intertwined stories about trees and the humans who finally pay attention. Long, necessary.
- 04.
The Friend—Sigrid Nunez
A grief novel that refuses sentimentality. The dog is real but that's not what it's about.
- 05.
Gilead—Marilynne Robinson
Letters from a dying father to a young son. Among the most beautiful sentences in American fiction.
- 06.
Trust—Hernan Diaz
Four versions of the same story. What you believe by the end depends on what you brought in.
- 07.
Crossroads—Jonathan Franzen
Franzen at his most generous. A family in winter, 1971, trying to be good.
- 08.
A Little Life—Hanya Yanagihara
Devastating and humane in equal measure. Not for every reader — unforgettable for the right one.
Our list changes when we read something we can't keep to ourselves.
Events
Upcoming.
Thursday, May 14
Author Reading: Marcus Webb
Marcus Webb reads from his debut novel, The Meridian Line — a story about a cartographer in post-war Vienna who discovers a border that shouldn't exist. Books available for signing. Free, no reservation needed.
Tuesday, May 20
Book Club: Trust — Hernan Diaz
Monthly discussion of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. All welcome, no preparation required. We provide the coffee; you provide the opinions. 7pm, in the back room.
Saturday, May 24
Saturday Story Hour
Picture books, poems, and crafts for children ages 3–8. Facilitated by our children's section buyer, Rosario. Free. Starts at 10:30am, runs about an hour. The cat usually shows up.
Events are free unless noted. We ask only that you arrive on time and turn off your phone.
About
Why we
exist.
We open the door at ten. We close it at seven. In between, we pour the coffee at our desk and read everything we sell. Our list is small on purpose — we'd rather have one perfect novel face-out than a hundred you'll forget. If a book is on our shelves, someone here has read it and thought you should too.
We opened in 2017 in a space on Western Avenue that used to be a watch repair shop. The shelves are the original owner's. The chair in the corner is ours. The cat arrived in 2019 and has shown no interest in leaving. We don't have a loyalty program or a newsletter or a podcast. We have books and we're here most days, and that's the whole of it.
Visit
Come in.
Hours
Hours subject to change when the cat naps in the doorway. This is not a joke.
Address
4724 N Western Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
Lincoln Square · Near the Western Brown Line stop