Used book store, "independent" bookstore, or chain bookstore? There's a big difference. The modern internet is more like Barnes and Noble than anything else.
There are actually a number of "independent" bookstores in Chicago, but all of the ones I've been too are really bad thanks to over-curation. I got a gift card for one as a present and spent over an hour a few weeks ago looking for something worth reading, but wasn't able to find anything. It was all New Yorker-approved nonfiction, boring modern fantasy and romance books, and overpriced versions of classics.
Used/charity bookstores are where it's at because they will take just about anything and have a high enough turnover for there to be something new and interesting each time you go.
I like secondhand bookstores. So many quality books!
But yeah, back in the day my bookstore had ottoman turkish books. Now, nothing. None of that. Fuck that. Still the "popular" section of randomass light-political stuff remains. Things like "why are we doomed", "why is everyone stupid" in different wordings, different titles.
Yeah, the light political books all seem to have the same running theme of "boomer makes surface-level observation based on a single day on Tiktok". It gets very old after about 15 of them.
My personal favorites to hate are the novels about contemporary political figures as if they're all Kissinger-level political magnates, and not opportunists like the majority of them actually are.
Ffs, there was a book about Secretary Yellen that called her a "trailblazer" lmao
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