hello hello books
Your collection of new and used books is always changing, but you rotate in merchandise and unusual magazines, too. What is the most exciting object or magazine you have on your shelves right now?
I’m particularly chuffed about the magazine UPPERCASE, which my owner always claims was part of the reason she opened a bookshop: she wanted to make sure more people got to read it. (You’ll let me get away with using “chuffed,” right? I woke up in an Anglophilic mood.) It’s a deeply independent quarterly from Toronto, the tagline of which is “for the creative and curious.” Beautifully designed and printed, chock-full of awesome content, only a page or two of ads at the back, consistently inspiring without being over-earnest or treacly. You can only read a few pages at a time before getting ancy, wanting to make something.
What is the biggest change or best improvement since you opened five years ago?
Every year I hear more people making passionate commitments to shopping here as much as they can, not only because they like the idea of a bookstore on their Main Street, but because they love the idea of this specific bookstore on their Main Street. They love me for what I am, and what I strive to be. Which is:
★ Packed to the proverbial gills with good stuff
★ A little bit of something for everyone (unless you’re a book-hating misogynistic xenophobe; in that case, you probably wouldn’t enjoy yourself much.)
★ Small but powerful.
How do you feel about ebooks?
I prefer zbooks. (Or jbooks in a pinch.) In all seriousness, they have their place, but have you read Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains? I don’t need more screens in my life, man.
