In Praise of Bookstores
Writing life: 64
In 1988, my wife, Nancy Naylor and I, married less than a year, bought our first home, a one bedroom condo across the street from Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market. On the day we moved in, we spent a few hours arranging our furniture, setting up our kitchen, putting sheets on our bed, etc. It didn’t take that long as back then, we didn’t have nearly as much stuff as we seemed to have accumulated in the almost 37 years since. In the afternoon, we decided to go for a walk around our new neighbourhood. We strolled along our street a ways, and on the block just to the west of our building on the south side of Front Street, we discovered one of the most beautiful bookstores I’d ever seen. Looking through the front window, I saw hardwood floors, lovely wooden bookshelves, great lighting and amazing art on the walls. I was stunned. I’d lived in Toronto for most of my life and had never heard about or seen this bookstore. It was called Nicholas Hoare Books.
I rushed inside quite upset that I had somehow missed this gem of a bookstore. I lamented all the missed hours in my past that I could have spent browsing those astonishingly well-curated shelves. A man with long grey hair staffed the checkout counter. I approached.
“I’ve never been to this beautiful bookstore before. I’ve never even heard of it. Have long have you been open?
“We’ve been open since 10:00 this morning.”
“No, I mean how long has this store been here at this location?”
“We opened at 10:00 this morning. This is our first day.”
What a welcome stroke of good luck. I can vividly remember the palpable relief that washed over me knowing that I couldn’t have enjoyed this store any earlier.
On a side-note, that man with the long grey hair at the counter was none other than the wonderful Ben McNally. He managed the store for many years before striking out on his own when he opened Ben McNally Books on Bay Street here in Toronto. His store has recently relocated to Queen Street East, just west of Jarvis and it’s such a lovely place to browse and buy.
Ben was very good to me when I was trying to break into the publishing world with my first novel, The Best Laid Plans. I took him to coffee and he had a look at my manuscript and made some helpful suggestions and opened some doors for me. I was grateful then and still am now. We’ve been friends for nearly 20 years.
When did it start?
I’m not sure when bookstores became important to me. When I was at McMaster University studying Mechanical Engineering and getting wrapped up in university government and the student movement, it was quite a stressful time. But I had a way to cope with the pressure. When I was feeling a little overwhelmed, I would take an hour and just browse the shelves of the university bookstore. Back then, I still wasn’t yet a heavy fiction reader, so I’d spend more time in the biography, history, and politics sections of the store. Often, I wouldn’t even buy a book, but I’d decompress and begin to feel myself again. It centred me, cleared my head, and allowed me to get back to my thermodynamics assignment or an Applied Math midterm, or a Student Representative Assembly meeting, or whatever was on my agenda for that night.
More than 25 years later, in the fall of 2007, McMaster University bookstore hosted the first book launch I’d ever had.
While at McMaster as my interest in politics overtook my interest in engineering, I joined the Book of the Month Club (BOMC). They had an introductory offer of five free books when you joined. I couldn’t pass that up! As you can see from the five BOMC books that still reside on my bookshelf, I was very interested in politics at the time (still am).
Bookstores beyond home…
At any rate, slowly but surely my love for bookstores and that joys and wonders they held, grew. I don’t remember noticing this developing affinity for bookstores, it was just, well, there. Whenever Nancy and I would travel to a new city, we’d always search out the best bookstores to visit along with the other more conventional tourist sites.
Whether in Paris, New York, London, Chicago, or the many Canadian cities I’ve visited, bookstores remain high on my list of places to visit, usually before seeing anything else.
In hindsight, I realize that I hadn’t just fallen in love with books, or with bookstores, but with the book world. And of course, bookstores are a big part of it. But this thing I’ve had for bookstores, undoubtedly helped lead me to writing and the very fulfilling life I’ve been leading now for nine novels and my tenth hitting stores next year.
All hail Indie booksellers
In the here and now, I still crave quiet time in bookstores. You’ll find me in a bookstore almost as often as you’ll find me in a grocery store. As a writer, I have really enjoyed all the events I’ve done that are connected in some way to bookstores, usually independent bookstores. I might be giving a talk, or participating on a panel, or running a workshop, all in independent bookstores. Or I might be making a presentation to a community club or in a library and I can always count on the local indie bookstore to come and sell my books wherever I am in the country.
And best of all, I have gained so many great friends among independent booksellers through the events I’ve done and my penchant for loitering in their stores. And I don’t just mean a few in my area, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know booksellers in every part of Canada.
A plea
In the last… oh, I don’t know, century shall we say… independent bookstores have been struggling, with many closing their doors. There are myriad reasons including the rise of big box bookstores that use their size and sales volume to ratchet down prices so that the Indies can’t make ends meet anymore. But now more than ever, Indies could use our collective help.
So why not visit your local Indie bookstore (if you’re lucky enough to have one), and buy some books. Don’t wait until Christmas. Get into the habit of visiting more regularly and just know that when you buy a book, it’s not just a self-serving act to support your own happiness, entertainment, or education, in a way it’s an act of loyalty and advocacy that symbolizes your belief in the importance of independent bookstores. For if we don’t show up for the Indies, one day we’ll find that our local bookstore has been shuttered. So let’s do our part. Here endeth the sermon.
Wrapping up…
I just feel different when I enter a bookstore. Like when I’m writing, the physical constants of life often disappear as soon as I cross a bookstore’s threshold. The fatigue, or hunger, or melancholy I may have been feeling, disappears as I step into a bookstore. Books and bookstores have a scent that I love. I’m smelling pages.
It just calms me down to idle among the shelves and fall into the books beckoning from the different sections. It is never wasted time. Even when I don’t find what I’m looking for, I still leaving the store with a book I wasn’t looking for but am happy to have. Time in a bookstore is always time well spent.
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Bookstores are my safe place. When everything else in life is out of control, I know I can always find something there to give me peace, to take me to places where I can find calm. Going home with a new book, settling in my chair, cracking the cover and tucking in...Now I can breathe deeply and come back refreshed.
I worked in 3 bookstores when I first moved to Ottawa - The Old Book Market (4 floors of used books) on Dalhousie, Coles on Rideau, and then Prospero Books on Bank and Slater (where I met and worked with Mark L). Working with books and in bookstores was an absolute dream come true for me. At Prospero, I was the shipper/receiver and so I was the first one in the store to see, touch, and occasionally smell (!!!) each book as it arrived. I still dream about that job, 26 years later!
Yes, I agree, time in a bookstore *is* always well spent!