Madison Street Books, shuttered after two days, plans for future

In today’s world of megastores and online shopping, merely opening a brick-and-mortar independent bookstore is bucking the system.

But that was just the beginning for Mary Mollman and Javier Ramirez, who opened their delay-plagued Madison Street Books on March 16. Although the COVID-19 pandemic shut down their dream store — temporarily — two days later, the duo still plan on bucking trends once the crisis has passed.

For now, they are accepting only online orders, and shipping for a modest $1 per title. But when they are back to business, it will be business as not-so-usual for most bookstores.

“We don’t have genre sections,” Ramirez told Arts & Culture Chicago. “Everything fiction is all one happy family. You’ll find literary fiction mixed in with horror, science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries.”

Madison Street Books also features a poetry section in the front of the store; in most megastores, poetry is a poor relation to best sellers, often shunted to a dusty corner in the back of the store to be found by only the most diehard aficionados.

The children’s section will be made more enticing by weekly “toddler jams” by Miss Dawn Marie Hamilton, who bills herself as “the world’s tallest five year old.” During the pandemic crisis, her concerts are available on Facebook; you can also see her on YouTube.com.

Once life is back to normal, Mollman and Ramirez also plan to have two to three book-related events every week, including appearances and readings by authors from Chicago and everywhere else.

The business partners told Arts & Culture Chicago that they met while working in a bookstore, and both have extensive experience working in independent book emporiums throughout the region. Mollman said she found the 1,500-square-foot space for her store at 1127 W. Madison St.— what she says is the ideal cusp of residential and commercial neighborhoods — before approaching Ramirez.

As she told Art & Culture, "I think we have a good chance of partnering with the neighbors and becoming a solid root in the neighborhood."