Best book sale--this weekend only!

September 12, 1:17 PMChicago Literary Scene ExaminerRobert Duffer

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One of the city's best independent bookstores, Unabridged Bookstore, is having a stay-in-business sale, where everything in the store is 20% off. This includes their extensive 'remainder' section. Remainders are last year's critically-praised hardcover and paperback books that didn't sell out and are not going back to the warehouse to die that dusty ignominous book death. Every time I stop into Unabridged--just to look--I walk out with $40 worth of books, usually six or seven of them since the remainders are priced between $5-$10. From Pulitzer winners to Penguin classics, nonfiction, fiction, bios and literary ephemera, you'll find something you've always wanted to read at a price that'll make you want to restock your bookshelves at home. And you can stock up on 2009's gay calendars.

The sale coincides with the Lakeview East Fetival of the Arts on Broadway between Roscoe and Belmont.

Employees of Unabridged review favorite titles, providing a one paragraph synopsis on a notecard under the book. There is no literary pomposity, unlike so many Book Review sections, and you'll proboably find an employee's comments on a book you already read to gauge his/her sensibility. It minimizes the risk of buying the latest Zadie Smith: will it be White Teeth good or will it be crap? And they love talking books. If you can't make the 20% sale this weekend, the remainders section is one of the best deals in the city and the employees one of the most well-read.

The following is an edited email from an employee:

Unabridged Bookstore, 3251 N. Broadway, is having a 20% off sale this Sat. and Sunday, Sept. 13 and 14. The Lakeview Arts Festival is going on then, and it usually kills the store 's business. It was my idea to combat this by having a sale, so I am hoping some people take advantage of it and buy books - -the 20% off includes the store 's awesome remainder section. It includes everything , actually. I don' t get any more money if this works, I am just hoping to keep my place of employment on its feet a while longer. Support your local independent bookstore! (And check out the Art Fair while you are at it!)

Robert Mc