If you're used to leafing through the breezy aisles of chain bookstores, then this Fine Arts Building spot stuffed to the brim with second-hand books might seem to have too much of a grandma's-basement feel. You know it's coming, so let's say it together now: Don't judge a book by its cover. Selected Works is akin to the classic mid-'80s teen heroine; bespectacled, intelligent and shyly precocious. Perhaps it's the fact that owner Keith Peterson used to work at the University of Chicago Bookstore that lends this 20-year-old store a bohemian, eccentric-scholar sensibility.

Selected Works boasts a steadily respectable if not endearingly random selection of English, fiction, history, music, humanities, occult and theology literature. The bookstore also has a solid repertoire of sheet music, musical scores and out-of-print books.

Selected Works is now located in the Fine Arts building; make a night of it and check out the new location during the building-wide open house, the second Friday of every month.

Centerstage Reviewer: M. Cecilia Wong