Bookstores

The Broadway Avenue area of Saskatoon used to have 6 or 7 bookstores (new and used).  I loved being able to walk down there and have my choice of bookstores.  Now there are only a couple left – increasing rents, retirement and perhaps competition from big chains resulted in the decrease.

One of my favourites on Broadway was It’s a Mystery bookstore, run by a retired teacher.  It was small, but very friendly and she was amazing in searching out books.  If I came across an obscure mystery  (Festering Lilies) that the library didn’t have and I couldn’t find in anywhere else, she’d take the information, search on line or during her travels to other cities and generally call me eventually to tell me she had the book or had tracked it down and did I want to buy it? I miss that bookstore, and others.

My very favourite bookstore is Munroe Books in Victoria, B.C.  It’s large, friendly, has a varied collection and also keeps back copies of an author’s books (e.g. Connie Willis).  So many bookstores don’t.  I hate it when I’ve discovered an author new to me, want to read more of his or her books, like them enough to buy them, and can’t find them.  Sure, I can order and have, but it’s so much nicer to find the book on the shelf.

Another favourite bookstore is Westgate books which used to be out in the Confederation Park area, but has been on 8^th Street near my grocery store for some time now.  I don’t visit it as often as I should.  For one thing it’s not within walking distance and when I’m in the area buying groceries I don’t usually think of going there.  They have a lot of books and I’ve found some good ones –hardback copies of To Kill a Mockingbird and Manhattan Transfer.

Of course, I like McNally Robinson and appreciate their support of local authors.  I’ve attended a number of readings there.  They are very good at ordering books, but I wish they’d cut down on their selection of non book gifts and stock more books.

I haven’t yet tried any of the electronic readers, though several people I know have spoken favourable of them.  I guess I’m still hooked on the tactile sensation of cracking a book.  Also, though I’m pretty careful of my books and generally treat them well, I also know that if I happen to drop one in the tub or dog ear it, no great harm done.  Books do dry out and are almost as good as new; they are even readable if the pages are a bit warped.  I’m not sure what would happen if you dropped an e-reader onto a sidewalk or worse, into the tub.

Libraries are still a big favourite of mine – my book budget isn’t unlimited and so they form the backbone of my reading (I’m about to start a biography of Robert Kennedy by Arthur Schlesinger Jr.).  Still, if I find a book or an author I really like, I generally want to buy the book so that I have it at my beck and call for whenever I want to pick it up again.