Books & Lit
David Mirvish Books Closes Its Doors
Saturday at 6 p.m. marked an end of an era for many book lovers.David Mirvish Books closed its doors for the last time. Some diehard book lovers were witness to the closing of one of the best bookstores in Toronto. This included Natalie Kovacs, who identified as a book fetishist.
"Why didn't they replace it with funding for a university library?" Kovacs wondered. "Where else are you going to find books like this? It's about coming here and reading and touching and feeling the books."
Indeed. The book retailer decided to continue selling their wares online only after the closing of their bricks-and-mortar store.
"It's about coming here and reading and touching and feeling the books," said Kovacs. "I wouldn't buy books online unless I had an unlimited amount of money. The endless shapes, fonts, styles... I can't come in here and lust at books anymore.
Books & Lit
Poetry On The (Better) Way
Poetry On The Way continues to be a nice departure on an otherwise mundane Toronto subway/bus ride, offering up a wide variety of poetry to audiences that may instead be using that time to stare at their iPhones or play 'what's that smell'.This one is entitled Escondido Nights by Jim Christy, who joins a legion of poets whom I haven't heard of until I stopped subway-flirting long enough to look up...
Books & Lit
Pages Lives! (At Least for Another 6 Months)
With a February 28th deadline looming for finding a new home or ceasing operations, Pages Books & Magazines will live on at its current home, at least for a little bit longer. In a press release sent out early this morning, founder Marc Glassman announced that Pages has extended their lease for six more months at the corner of Queen and John, keeping them there until the end of August.According to the release, landlord Pinedale Properties agreed to the extension after witnessing the outpouring of concern from the local arts community, media, customers and City Councillor Adam Vaughan's office.
Books & Lit
Seen Reading on the TTC
One of the more bizarre blogs created in Toronto has to be Seen Reading. It's the product of Julie Wilson's efforts to document what people are reading on the TTC. Not only does she keep a record of the name of the book, but she also guess-timates what passage the reader is reading at the time she spotted them and then infers some info about them and what feelings or emotions they might be experiencing at that moment in time.
Here's an example of a post about a woman she spotted on the Spadina streetcar reading John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent.
Now, someone has spied on Julie and it's our friends over at Dear Toronto. Just before Christmas they tagged along with her as she cruised the Bloor subway line looking for new material. Their video is embedded above.
Here's an example of a post about a woman she spotted on the Spadina streetcar reading John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent.
Now, someone has spied on Julie and it's our friends over at Dear Toronto. Just before Christmas they tagged along with her as she cruised the Bloor subway line looking for new material. Their video is embedded above.
Books & Lit
Time Running Out to Save Pages
There are just over two months left to save Pages Books & Magazines. Voted the Best Bookstore in Toronto by readers of this site, Pages has been an integral part of the fabric of the Queen West neighbourhood since it set up shop at Queen and John back in 1979.In recent years, we've all watched how many of the once thriving indie shops on Queen have been forced out by escalating rents and replaced by the who's who of Canadian and multinational chains like H&M, Zara, Aritzia, Lululemon and, ughh, Crocs. Their appearance has changed the integrity and character of the once uber cool stretch between University and Spadina. It was small consolation that places like Pages and The Horseshoe remained but now there's a very real possibility that Pages will be lost.
Books & Lit
David Sedaris is Sociable at Massey Hall
My friend Cathy could be BFF with David Sedaris. David just doesn't know it yet.Besides reading his articles and books, it turns out that both Cathy and David are huge fans of George Saunders. Apparently David flogs one book (in addition to his) whenever he goes out on a tour. When he asked the packed Massey Hall crowd last week if anyone had read Braindead Megaphone, he got exactly two quiet-but-enthusiastic-Torontonian-style "whoo!"s. One was from Cathy.
This summer David was in town signing books and I missed him. Luckily Cathy is smarter than I am, and found out that he was back in town in December for a reading at Massey Hall. Hot. Diggity.
Going to book the tickets though, she discovered all that was left was "partially obstructed view". I sagely pointed out to her that when we listen to him on the This American Life podcast, we have an entirely obstructed view. She acknowledged my good point, and tickets were purchased. So Cathy was there to show Braindead Megaphone (and David) some love.
