Most used bookstores have crowded aisles, shelves as disordered as a home office and a cat or two….or some feline clerks. But City Bookshop, located in a condominium storefront on busy Broadway Street in what was once Boystown (now Breederville), has no cats. The store is so small that it has no aisles, either.

Facing west, its polished wood floors reflect the natural light, giving the store a sense of space and order. Stacked floor to ceiling, the wall-to-wall bookcases offer great selections in damn good condition: Due to its size there is no space for crap. This place buys and sells quality.

Unlike your typical used bookshop, each book has an actual price sticker. A hardback of Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory, classic paperback of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith and a paperback copy of Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible cost a total of $18.50.

Students can do even better: the ratty, classic paperbacks that occupy an entire shelf go from $2-$5. There's poetry, Hardy Boys, Beat selections, psychology, history, philosophy, esoterica and a relatively big Chicago section. Look forward to a website and readings in the future.

Centerstage Reviewer: Robert Duffer