Reading on Walden was a neighborhood independent bookstore in Beverly. The shop is closed, and this site sells nothing.
The beginning
Michelle and John Presta started the business with a few books, a few magazines, a few newspapers and a passion for reading and literature. They developed a reputation as involved community activists and organizers. The store also became known for its special-ordering service. Those were the elements of its own account of the business: modest beginnings, an interest in the neighborhood and attention to the books readers wanted.
The store’s name appeared above a varied set of reading interests. Fiction and nonfiction stood alongside children’s books. Local authors received a section of their own, while local interest and the surrounding shopping district were part of the store’s presentation. Reading on Walden was rooted in Beverly Hills and Morgan Park, and its reading lists reached beyond Chicago.
Finding the right book
Special ordering was a practical part of the store’s identity. A small independent’s shelves could introduce a reader to a title, while its ordering service could help locate a particular book beyond that immediate selection. Reading on Walden’s description of itself as a personal bookseller joined those two parts of its work.
Its bestseller section carried seven categories through a national independent-bookseller programme. New Arrivals That We Recommend supplied another route into reading. The local-author section and the discussion group brought more particular interests into the mix. The store’s sections described a bookselling practice that combined breadth with individual selections.
A monthly conversation
The Reading on Walden Book Discussion Group began in February 1996. It met at the Beverly Branch Library and was open to community members. An early description welcomed participation even from people who had not read the selected book. That detail gave the group an approachable character: reading mattered, and so did the exchange around it.
Its listed selections included The Fountainhead, Dreams from My Father and The Wild Irish: A Novel of Elizabeth I and the Pirate O’Malley. These were different kinds of books, with different settings and concerns. The discussion group’s reading choices reflected that range without reducing the group to a single genre.
Local authors and a larger reading community
Under Outstanding Local Authors, Reading on Walden featured Elizabeth Berg’s Never Change and mentioned Open House. The shop also hosted a signing with Trevor Romain for Under the Big Sky. These were specific connections between books, their makers and the store’s readers.
Participation in One Book, One Chicago added a citywide strand. In 2006 the store featured Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Later site headings included Book Discussion Group, Library Events, Upcoming Fiction and Upcoming Non Fiction. Across those sections, the same interests remained visible: a neighborhood bookstore, a varied reading life and books shared in conversation.