Before the Age of Artifice, before TV, X-Boxes and Video Lottery Terminals, most ordinary folk spent their entertainment dollar on books. They didn't have much choice. Today, in spite of all the shiny distractions, people are still buying books. It's true. Proof is in those ubiquitous big-box stores that boast more coffee flavours than staff. And there's Amazon, too. The website that thrives on expediency and convenience while all of your personal data -- likes, dislikes, shopping habits -- are stored in cyberspace forever.
Convenience. It's so 2006. But where's the fun? Scrolling down a computer screen and clicking on a virtual shopping cart is cold and impersonal. There's no tactile satisfaction: holding a book, flipping through its pages, actually feeling words pressed into paper. And forget about inhaling a book's wonderful ink-and-paper scent, let alone reading the first page to see if it's worth the cost.
Sure, Chapters and Indigo offer selection, but if wading through over-priced bric-a-brac and the masses stocking up on whatever Oprah is touting this month is your idea of a shopping experience, so be it. Stick to the virtual bookstore. Or, you can take a page out of Virginia Woolf's book, so to speak:
"Here, none too soon, are the second-hand bookshops. Here we find anchorage in these thwarting currents of being."
Anchorage is available. Second-hand bookshops are scattered across the city. Some are big. But most are small. Some are tucked away in alleyways. Some stand as a veritable trove of classic fiction, fable and art. Others smell funny. Weird music crackles through ancient speakers. Potted plants teeter atop bookshelves bursting with books. Beautiful, ragged old books.
A 'new' used book is a time capsule, a peek into a stranger's past.
Enter. Don't let the dust or the dim lighting deter you. The bespectacled form sipping green tea and pouring over a tattered copy of Mrs. Dalloway may seem a tad eccentric (polite for wacky), but she won't bite, just as long as you don't step on her cat snoozing in the philosophy section. And if you have the time, she might share her opinion on Iraq, Blake vs. Byron or even offer you an Agatha Christie collection - complete, and all yours for a song.
She's strange, sure, but she's sublime. She extols the value of a good used book. After all, used books are more than just tales between two covers, written down to enlighten or entertain. There's a story in every detail. Details like a faded inscription, a touching dedication to a lover or a friend; a rose petal pressed and forgotten between pages 44 and 45; an unfinished crossword puzzle used as a bookmark; a favourite passage underlined in green ink.
A 'new' used book is a time capsule, a peek into a stranger's past. But perhaps Virginia Woolf said it best: "Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack."
Price makes a difference, too, especially for us frugal folk. Buy or trade and you might leave with eight paperbacks for the price of one brand new hardcover. Some shops even have a display case filled with first editions or out-of-print books you'd never find at the chain stores. You don't have to be lucky, just willing to dig. Remember: the thrill is in the hunt, and you never know what you'll find because the inventory changes week-to-week, if not daily. After a tour of the bookshops listed below, you'll have a fully stocked library in no time.
Excerpts from Virginia Woolf's Street Haunting, A London Adventure, 1927.
Happy Reading
To get a complete list and description of second-hand bookshops in and around the city, go to www.usedbookcircle.com.
If you prefer to just drop in, here are some shops worth checking out:
Astro Books:
1844, rue Ste-Catherine Ouest; phone: (514) 932-1139
Biblomania Bookshoppe:
460, rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, #406; phone: (514) 933-8156
Cheap Thrills:
2044, rue Metcalfe; phone: (800) 343-4712 or (514) 844-8988
Dog-Eared Books:
30, av Westminster Nord; phone: (514) 487-6855
Encore Books and Records:
5670, rue Sherbrooke Ouest; phone: (514) 482-5100
Ex Libris:
2159, rue Mackay; phone: (514) 284-0350
Footnotes:
1454, rue Mackay; phone: (514) 938-0859
La Book-tique:
81, av Donegani, Pointe Claire, QC; phone: (514) 694-5553
L'Échange:
713, av Mont-Royal Est; phone: (514) 523-6389
Librairie Henri-Julien:
4800, rue Henri-Julien; (514) 844-7576
Librairie Mini-Prix:
125, boul. des Laurentides, Laval, QC; phone: (450) 667-6730
Livres Bronx:
7682, rue Edouard, LaSalle; phone: (514) 368-3543
Odyssey Books:
1439, rue Stanley; phone: (514) 844-4843
S.W. Welch, Bookseller:
3878, boul. St-Laurent; phone: (514) 848-9358
Regent Bookshop:
1855, rue Ste-Catherine Ouest; phone: (514) 937-7617
Westcott Books:
2065, rue Ste-Catherine Ouest; phone: (514) 846-4037
The Word Bookstor:
469, rue Milton; phone: (514) 845-5640
Zeeba Books:
1414, rue Victoria, Greenfield Park, QC; phone: (450) 672-2662 |
Photo courtesy of www.usedbookcircle.com |
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