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Bar-side Book Readings
Monday May 01, 2006.
By Erin Brereton
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 The season has brought its typical harvest: wedding invitations, save the date cards, baby shower invites. And in this time of new beginnings, my friend Shari has given birth to a real book: 264 pages (including the enclosed book club questions) about families and the ties that delicately bind (and sometimes choke), titled Family and Other Accidents. She's currently reading chapters of it everywhere from California to New York, trying to sell copies. She's been in People, where she was picked, not panned. And yet she told me yesterday she's worried about getting more publicity for the book. Because in today's world, especially today's literary world, PR can make or break your work, and I'm not just talking about published writers. Take a look around the city: At bookstores, coffee shops and even bars, would-be writers are packing up their prose and promoting themselves and their words. I've been to one book reading in my life, and I was kind of drunk thanks to the free cheese and wine so it was with intense curiosity that I set out for a reading at the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, last week. The off-the-beaten-path bar is known for its solid indie rock shows and beer-in-a-can casualness. But music aside, the Hideout actually hosts all kinds of performances (news to me), and on that night it was home to student readings from the Northwestern University Masters in Creative Writing Program and Another Chicago magazine. Starting after 6 p.m., bookish and alterny grad students got up to read selections from their mostly serious stories. The room was packed (we couldn't get a seat), despite the fact it was right after work, a Friday night and held at a sort-of-hard-to-find housish bar off Elston. In rapt silence, attendees listened as the readers spun stories of childlike innocence and family disputes. (Thankfully, no one lowered their head dramatically after finishing.) But it was an odd thing, this reading. You can't really buy the book. (It's not written yet. I mean, you aren't even sure if they've finished their homework). You can buy one of the literary magazines for sale in the back, but that's just a sampling. The writer who scripted a scene involving children desperate to keep a violent father on the other side of their door seemed to show real promise. But then he was done, and we were clapping and I thought, maybe this is enough, literature light. And it left me wanting more. Which is, of course, the principal behind the readings published authors do—except their end goal is to get you to buy the book. I wondered, is a reading like the one at the Hideout the type where art becomes just art? These people didn't want my feedback on their story. And they didn't want me to buy anything. They just wanted me to share...and, I found out later, a suggested $5 donation at the door (which I um, didn't realize they wanted, or I would have gladly paid it). The Hideout has monthly readings as part of its Dollar Store series; writers write about something from a dollar store (it's billed as "an evening of readings and performances given by some of Chicago's top literary talents, monologists, performers, and drunks"). Held on the first Friday of the month, those invite a slim $1 donation. And if you're interested in hearing excerpts from authors you'll be able to read afterwards, check out local bookstores and libraries, which often host readings (the Harold Washington Library had three last month alone). I'll be heading to Shari's reading next week when her book tour rolls up into Chicago. But in that case, it'll also be purely for culture. Because I've already bought the book. The Hideout's next literary reading is scheduled for May 5 at 6:40 p.m. For more information about upcoming readings at the Hideout, check out its calendar.
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