To the Library!
April 22, 2010
My Writing Group went on a field trip recently- seeking inspiration, enjoying friendship and … yes, there may have been chocolate involved. One of the treasures we encountered were pockets and cards from library books. Remember these from your elementary school library? The names awkwardly yet carefully printed with HB pencil over several lines. They were at the wonderful little shop called The Regional Assembly of Text on Main Street in Vancouver.
I went to the library for the first time in several years the other day and discovered I had an unpaid fine. Egad how embarrassing. And then I held my breath … the fine? 60 cents. 60 cents!! I am afraid I tend to mostly purchase my books and occasionally borrow them from friends. I love independent bookstores and harbour a secret (not so much of a secret now apparently …!) desire to have my own bookstore one day. Remember Meg Ryan’s Shop Around the Corner in the movie You’ve Got Mail? Heaven! I confess though that books on occasion fall from the display at Costco into my cart – that buggy is so big it has its own gravitational pull. And I do spend an inordinate amount of time at Chapters because I love wandering the aisles and perusing the vast selection of titles in a variety of sections. Home decor, reference, fashion, sport, biography, business, magazines … like so many little book shops all together. Purchases at either of these “Big Box” options always makes me feel a bit disloyal though. So … how do you shop for books? Are you a library devotee? Is it used bookstores that you frequent? Are you in the next aisle over at Chapters? What’s your favourite indpendent bookstore? Were you a Grade 5 library monitor too? 
April 23, 2010 at 1:39 pm
The final days of Duthies Books were sad ones for the city of Vancouver’s legion of fans not seduced away by the big box book stores such as Chapters!
Up until a few years ago, I purchased and kept all of the books I read. I loved to view the richness of the written word around my home! I hated to lend my books out owing to the fact that I would rarely get them back! I seldom reread them, however, they made me feel enriched and happy so I could never part with them!
Well, as circumstances change in life, so have my book collecting habits. When I moved from the family home, back in 2008, I took box after box of books to work with me where my coworkers felt they had really hit pay dirt! I gave away hundreds of books and discovered that there is great satisfaction in sharing one’s wealth! Naturally, I kept a few of my absolute favourites-A Fine Balance, The Piano Man’s Daughter and Fall on your Knees to mention a few. Now I still buy my books, sometimes from Chapters and occasionally at Munroe’s books in Victoria but I happily pass them on, much to the delight of the recipient. My only stipulation is that they in turn pass them on!