“Intercontinental schlepping.” That’s what Sofia Lazo calls the transporting of her book collection from one home to the next.
The now proud Pilsen resident, and assistant director of annual giving at the University of Chicago, grew up in Peru and California before moving to Boston, then Chicago.
“There’s this whole process where I look at the people I’m leaving behind and give them books; I need to get rid of some anyway, so it’s a gift to them and to me! Then there’s ‘I haven’t read this and have no plans on reading it, but I like the way it looks!’ And then there’s the throw-away pile, which I always end up regretting.”
The books she kept, now displayed on a cool cantilevered shelf by local furniture designer Cole Mestrovich, include “Sophie’s World” by Jostein Gaarder; “Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina” by Eduardo Galeano; and several different translations of “The Little Prince” acquired on her travels — much-loved mementos, all.