In the name of indy bookstores...

[dewline]

I've not yet been to this particular bookstore, and I'm worrying that I won't ever get the chance, thanks to this news item:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/826065--cherished-bookseller-threatened-with-closure?bn=1

The store in question is called "This Ain't the Rosedale Library", believe it or don't.

Comments

[steve-roby.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of going out there on one of my trips to Toronto earlier this year, but being stuck where I was out at Don Valley and Eglington, and having only the evenings free, it never happened.

I used to love Pages on Queen St W, and thought this store might cover some of the same ground. Oh well...

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.

Seeing as how the rallying to the rescue appears to have started in Toronto to save the store, I'm not sure I want to make this posting/thread a memorial just yet.

I'll keep an eye out for further news. Torontonian regulars here, I'm hoping, will help me out with that...?

[tartysuz.livejournal.com]

Toronto was full of independent bookstores when I lived there. Some of them had several locations, but were all locally owned. The big boxes did a real number on them, so RIP Lichtman's, Writers & Co., Pages (that was a favourite of mine), Britnell's, etc.

I didn't get to This Ain't the Rosedale Library very often because I wasn't in that part of town, but it was legendary even back then, so this is shocking news.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

So I'm starting to gather. Disturbing in its way. We've had some attrition here in Ottawa but it's managed to slow down to a crawl in recent years. A good thing, too. A couple of the indy stores hereabouts are outfits I'd be loathe to lose.

As to Toronto, my interest still runs to specialty bookstores: Swipe(graphic design), Bakka-Phoenix(SF), another one devoted to architecture currently in the same building as Swipe, and of course the comics/animation-related shops like the Beguiling and the Labyrinth.

[tartysuz.livejournal.com]

Another good place for SF is, surprisingly, Glad Day Books. Since their interest is to keep LGBT materials in stock, they always had rare or out-of-print SF titles around, and they weren't picked over by SF fans too much because the store is not known as an SF destination.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

I'll be blogging about it too, but I'm not hopeful. I visited the store much more frequently at its former location, when it was just a couple minutes' walk from the subway station, than at its new one.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

It was especially great when it was located above Bakka Phoenix, wasn't it? Talk about one-stop book shopping ...

[tartysuz.livejournal.com]

It was!

Surfing around, I saw this additional bad news story about Glad Day Books being in trouble:

http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Could_sex_toys_save_Glad_Day-8755.aspx