The End Of Pages
With six hours to go before they close their doors forever, the shelves at Pages are nearly empty, a testament to the quality of owner Marc Glassman's buying, and the devotion of his customers, who will have to find somewhere else to go for their cultural theory, outsider fiction and glossy design tomes when the lights go off after exactly thirty years to the day.
James, a customer for 20 years, is in shock. He'd shown up looking for a book by the psychedelic hot rod illustrator Coop only to find a bare store and depressing news. "It's bad," he tells me. "This is wrong. Indigo is everywhere and the only good bookstore is gone. I got my Anton LaVey books here. Liberal fascism strikes again."
As Glassman has been at pains to point out, his store isn't closing because of poor sales, but because the rent on the city-owned property was about to skyrocket, and he was facing the prospect of seeing his tight profits disappear. As a result, a lot of people passing through the store have harsh words for the city, and Mayor David Miller in particular, though the blame for Pages' extinction probably resides in the more abstract realm of city budget policy.
It's the reason why Glassman thinks he's been able to maintain his calm throughout the long terminal phase of his store - it's hard to find anyone to blame. Even the building manager has been astounded at how helpful he's been, going so far as to recommend an architect to help with a renovation of the space after Pages is gone. Sitting in a booth at the Peter Pan just a block away - along with Pages and the Silver Snail, one of the few vestiges of post-punk Queen West still standing - he seems surprised at the depth of his reaction on the last day, which he had intended to spend attending film festival press screenings, though his staff had ultimately let him know they wanted to have him around.
Manning the cash register at the store is Chris Reed, and employee for three and a half years. "The last week has been strangely encouraging," he says. "It's like when the farmer's barn burns down, and the community helps him build a new one." Thanks to the strong sales, Pages will close debt-free, with Glassman able to pay his staff decent severance packages. Still, the mood has been somber.
"It's been very much like being in a receiving line at a wake," Reed tells me.
Back at the Peter Pan, Glassman muses that Pages opened the same month as This Ain't The Rosedale Library (TATRL) and Edwards Books And Art - three pillars of Toronto's once-thriving independent bookstore community. Edwards in long gone, a victim of over-expansion that survives only as a footnote in the legal battle over Sunday shopping, but TATRL survives in a new home in Kensington Market, though owner Charlie Huisken's son once did time behind the cash at Marc's store.
The end of Pages is, ultimately, the end of the pre-digital counterculture that thrived on Queen West, before the chain stores and sushi joints, when good book and record stores were vital to the city's loose but thriving Bohemia - the place where you went during the day, before the bars and bands and after-hour booze cans. As Glassman talks about what he's about to lose, it's obvious that one of the things he'll miss most of all is being a compere and matchmaker to that unruly community of writers, artists, designers, musicians, filmmakers and journalists.
"I can't tell you how many fantastic, beautiful, brilliant women I introduced to so many pretty okay guys," he says with a grin.
For his part, Glassman says he'll be alright. He still has his second career as a writer and magazine editor, and there's talk about reopening the store, if he can find a committed backer and the perfect space. Right now, though, things feel pretty final, which is why he's been seeking refuge at the Peter Pan, with friends and family and a few glasses of white wine. He compares the store to a mistress, though the empty shelves make it feel "like a corpse."
The Pages legacy will live on, though, in This Is Not A Reading Series, which Glassman runs with Reed, and its kid-friendly spin-off. The "big deal goodbye," as he calls it, will be a farewell party on Sept. 8th at the Gladstone that he's dubbed Afterword, after which that community will slip away back to their libraries and the cold embrace of Amazon, where they'll doubtless find themselves wondering why they find it so hard to get into a really good argument about books (or movies, or music, or art) these days.
Comments (19)
I didn't realize that Pages was closing until I walked by randomly last week. Really bummed out about it, I love that place.
Pages is dead. Long live Pages. Many thanks to Marc for his contribution to the cultural life of this city for all these years and for all the years to come.
If Mayor Miller wants to cultivate the essence of Toronto he should make sure that these local institutions survive, especially ones located on city property, never mind all of these ridiculous psuedo-cultural festivals and that horrid dundas square.....put the money into Toronto's past once in a while, a past which might prove to be it's future.
Why doesn't Pages move, like the "cultural" heart of queen street has, to West Queen West? Cheaper rents, too. :)
ddt, that's an idiotic proposal. It is not municipal government's duty to bail out businesses - even culturally important ones - who lack the common sense to plan for an inevitable rent increase at the end of their 10-year lease.
Sara, if you love the store so much, how did you miss the repeated news stories about its imminent demise? How did you miss the "going out of business" signs that have been in the store for the past month? Unless, of course, you couldn't have noticed because you never shop there. Which is, of course, why so many beloved cultural institutions in town are closing - they're "beloved", but not beloved enough for people to actually shop there, it seems. As I overheard from staff in David Mirvish, when the inevitable crowd descended on it after they announced they were closing: "If it was this busy all the time, we wouldn't be closing."
Love a local store? Shop there. That's how you support them and keep them going. Don't wait for stories in the local news about their hard times. Don't think that a Facebook Group is going to accomplish jack shit. Do you love Soundscapes? Then buy things from them. Do you love This Ain't The Rosedale Library? Then GIVE THEM YOUR FUCKING MONEY in exchange for the valuable cultural artifacts and services they offer. Period.
Indeed, Queen has become high-street commercial for at least a decade. I can't recall the last time I bought anything on Queen just east of Spadina. Trendy shops with no character or soul; it says nothing to me but trashy, trendy and transitory. I remember and love the _old_ Queen St, when Benny's was a dive, and you could find interesting shops and owners. All the action is west of Spadina - increasingly moving west toward and past Ossington, as rents increase.
I was a regular customer and it was one of my weekly haunts.
It's going to be strange not having it there, anymore.
You my friend are one of those brand name people that miss the point....sacrifice soul in the name of the corporate.....although i do believe in progress and a fair market, i've learned from the experience of observation that sometimes as we watch the familiar and dear fade away we loose a bit of ourselves, and our history.....now if you'd prefer a world filled with condos and cornershop Sobeys that's up to you,but that's not the true spirit of our city... "ddt, that's an idiotic proposal. It is not municipal government's duty to bail out businesses - even culturally important ones - who lack the common sense to plan for an inevitable rent increase at the end of their 10-year lease"...of course it's idiotic, because sometimes only the extreme (not common sense) can preserve the things that once gone cannot be replaced....and it's fine for the city to bail out parades, dog fests and indulge in unnacceptable spending practices right?.and what is Municipal governments duty? To run the city responsibly?is it a two faces entity that on the one hand pretends to be a fiscal champion , and on the other this mother teresa that cares dearly about the dogs , trees , children, distillery districts and all that bs? If it cares so much.....
I'm sorry to say this but it is obvious Marc Glassman no longer wanted to run a bookstore. He had plenty of time to find a new space instead he wanted the "perfect" space which is something you make. He knew his rent would go up and instead of preparing he just let it happen and then cried wolf once it was too late. I will miss Pages but now my patronage will shift to the Bob Miller Bookroom for my cultural studies and philosophy needs.
I'm not going to address the second part of your response, as it's so hopelessly muddled I honestly can't decipher what it is you're trying to argue. As for the first part: how in the world does my advocating that people have to support their local cultural enterprises with their pocketbooks equate to a pro-corporate stance? From where I'm sitting, it's exactly the opposite.
It feels like I've lost a good friend, and I haven't even lived in T-dot for 9 years now. It was a regular stop whenever I visited, and some of my favourite books of the last few years have come from there. There is no Vancouver equivalent.
Thank you! You expressed my sentiments exactly. I was just wondering how many of the people who where saddened by its demise actually shopped there as opposed to the Chapters right accross the street...I'm guilty of the latter:(
I try to encourage local businesses as much as possible but truth be told, my bank account is generally my radar...so as much as I thinks it sucks that so many local businesses are going down, I only have myself to blame.
I have gone to pages since day one and in a lot of ways this marks the end of the Queen West revival; to me most of the surrounding area is just a shopping mall. At least Active Surplus is still there. Thanks Pages and Marc for doing so much to create the culture we enjoy now.
The only reason Pages exists no more is because Marc Glassman chose to fold the business. There is NO other reason.
Sorry to see Pages closed but we want to thank you for supporting Arsenal Pulp Press and our books over the years!
Hearts just a little broken today.
This was the best bookstore for new books in the city. It was always my go-to place for both gifts and personal acquisitions. Regardless of why it's gone, it's a huge loss for the city's book lovers. I'll miss you, Pages! :(
I loved Pages, and I continued to buy books there even after the internet bookstores opened. Thirty years is a good run, and now I'll just have to spend my Pages browsing time at Bob Miller and This Ain't the Rosedale Library ... and Type. There's a collaborative atlas of good bookstores and lit sites on the Millions blog, with some entries for Toronto bookstores. It's at http://www.themillions.com/2009/03/millions-collaborative-atlas-of-book_18.html
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