blogcutter

...especially when you can't go to the theatre!

But in this era of pandemic lockdowns, even those wonderful sprawling second-hand book sales are a thing of the past and, I hope, the foreseeable future. But hark! What if there be a way to boost both literary arts in one fell swoop? Behold, the Gladstone Theatre's online auction, which I mentioned here on May 21:

https://blogcutter.dreamwidth.org/tag/gladstone+theatre

After looking at their array of offerings, I ended up bidding on a box of books. No one upped my bid, so the books were mine. Denis from the Gladstone delivered them to our door yesterday. It was like Christmas in June!

In numerous entries in this blog, I've discussed my hauls from various book sales of yesteryear:

https://blogcutter.dreamwidth.org/tag/book+sales

As for the Gladstone box, it contained 22 books (11 fiction and 11 non-fiction). Here's what I got:


FICTION

1. Jeffrey Archer - Only Time Will Tell (2011)

2. Julian Barnes - Arthur and George (2005)

3. Deborah Crombie -Leave the Grave Green (1995)

4. Elizabeth George - This Body of Death (2010)

5. Sue Monk Kidd - The Book of Longings (2020)

6. Susan McMaster - Haunt (2018) poetry

7. Ian McEwan - Machines Like Me (2019)

8. Peter May - I'll Keep You Safe (2018)

9. Delia Owens - Where the Crawdads Sing (2018)

10.Alexander McCall Smith - The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds (2012)

11.Peter Swanson - 8 Perfect Murders (2020)


NON-FICTION

1. John Adams - Old Square-toes and his Lady: The Life of John & Amelia Douglas (2001)

2. Margaret Atwood - Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (2002)

3. Emily Carr (writer/illustrator) - Emily Carr & her Dogs Flirt Punk & Loo (this ed. 2013)

4. Mark Ellwood - A Complete Waste of Time: Tales & Tips about Getting More Done (1997)

5. Helen Forsey - A People's Senate for Canada: Not a Pipe Dream (2015)

6. Adam Hochschild = King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror & Heroism in Colonial Africa (1998)

7. Naomi Klein - No is Not Enough: Resisting the New Shock Politics & Winning the World We Need (2017)

8. Brian McGarry - From Paupers to Prime Ministers: A Life in Death (2012)

9. Princeton Historical Society - Princeton History: Journal of the Historical Society no. 6 (1987)

10.Gloria Steinem - My Life on the Road (2015)

11.Margaret Visser - Much Depends on Dinner (1986)


There's a mixture of hardcover books and paperbacks but they were nearly all in fine condition. Also of interest to me were the dedications in some of the books and the selection of bookmarks. There was one from Place Bell Books (remember them?), one from Books in Canada on Sparks Street (they may be gone now too), one depicting Ottawa heritage structures and one advertising Independent Bookshops and the Ottawa Citizen Literacy Foundation. Plus a couple of the basic Indigo & Plum Plus bookmarks.

I don't think I've read any of them, but I've definitely read other books by most of the fiction authors and some of the non-fiction ones too. Surprisingly enough with several of the non-fiction authors I haven't read, I'm very much looking forward to reading them even though I probably never would have chosen to buy them - for example Brian McGarry's book and the one about the Senate by Helen Forsey (daughter of the late senator Eugene Forsey, who incidentally was an enthusiastic user and supporter of government libraries!)

One book I have on the go now is How We Read Now: Strategic Choices for Print, Screen & Audio, by Naomi S. Baron. It's very interesting but for bedside reading, I think maybe I'll dip into one of the mysteries from that box. Lots of choices there!

How have film-going habits changed since the start of the pandemic? Or have they really changed at all? Maybe they've just continued along the same inexorable path from the silver screen to the smartphone-screen?

So many of the arts have gone from being large group experiences to ridiculously individualized ones. I'm thinking of gallery-going and vernissages, concert-going and music festivals, live theatre and, of course, film. Even TV, which started out very household-based, has gone from families all gathering around the "boob tube" at the same time to recording and viewing later or streaming at whatever time is convenient for the individual. I suppose reading has always been a mainly solitary activity, although there's still room for book clubs, in-class discussions and the like.

But back to film. What prompts today's post is the recent news that the Bytowne Cinema on Rideau Street will be closing for good at the end of this month:

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/All-good-things-must-come-to-an-end.html?soid=1102316637554&aid=4DEbLzGBozc&fbclid=IwAR2M5-JRoxuJzjxkzc-5lLA4KEVWPP4PkzrOtdldFBA8y7Q3vCvfwstitRc

The premises themselves were the old Nelson, where I saw a number of first-run movies over the course of my childhood. But when it re-opened as the Bytowne, it was a repertory cinema and a re-incarnation of sorts of the old Towne Cinema on Beechwood Avenue. I would actually have thought that repertory film in general might survive, given that it always involved a number of older classic films as well as somewhat obscure independent and foreign films that you can't just watch anywhere and any time. We do still have the Mayfair - I hope that survives.

I'm also concerned about the wonderful second-hand bookshop next door to the Bytowne. I don't know if it has remained open during the pandemic as I haven't tried to go in. Certainly it's the sort of place where physical distancing would be a challenge! With any luck, maybe it will be bought out and preserved by a few loyal and well-heeled patrons, just as happened with Books on Beechwood?

An article by Kenneth Whyte that appeared on Saturday in the Globe and Mail has sparked a firestorm of indignant outrage amongst librarians and others who care about books and reading. The gist of Whyte's argument is that libraries and book dealers are fierce competitors with each other and that moreover, libraries actually have an unfair advantage over bookshops because they are largely financed by public funds. I'll leave it to you, dear reader, to judge for yourself the merits of his claims:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-thanks-to-government-funding-libraries-are-poised-to-win-market-share/

To be sure, libraries and booksellers do have some goals in common and their owners, managers and other employees have overlapping skill sets. Indeed, there is a certain degree of crossover in the staff of both types of institutions. But their mandates and missions, while complementary, generally differ in a number of important ways.

I'm not going to explore all the theoretical or academic arguments here. Instead I want to focus on what it means for the everyday reader.

Maybe you subscribe to a few magazines. For example, Chatelaine or Walrus or Macleans. Although I'm thinking if I did subscribe to Macleans, I'd be sorely tempted to cancel my subscription after reading Whyte's article! But chances are, there are also other magazines which occasionally publish an article you'd like to read. If it comes to your attention when it first hits the newsstands then sure - you can buy a copy of that issue from your favourite bookstore. But where will you find the article once it's several months old? Chances are, you'll get it through your library.

Large bookstore chains are great for finding the latest bestsellers, often at deeply discounted prices. But what about books from smaller presses with limited print runs? Or books that have long been out of print? You can special-order them from a used book dealer if you know they exist and the price is within your budget. You can browse WorldCat. And I've had some serendipitous moments at Friends of the Farm and various school-based used book sales. But for treasure troves of books that are available in your neighbourhood, to browse on an ongoing basis - except maybe during a pandemic - I'd say the library is by far your best bet.

Bookstores are not all alike, of course. I make a special effort to support the smaller independent shops, which generally provide superior customer service. Quite often, they issue newsletters of their own, with helpful reviews and reader recommendations. Like libraries, they hold readings, signings and other book-oriented events which pay off in terms of both reader engagement and book sales. But events of that kind have been on hold for the past few months, and many independents are hurting.

So what can we do? I'll conclude by providing a link to the recent report entitled Independent Bookstores in Canada's Post-Covid Cultural Landscape. It has some useful and thought-provoking suggestions about the policy directions we might take.


https://www.morecanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Independent_Bookstores_in_Canadas_post-Covid_cultural_landscape.pdf

Today we went to the second-hand book sale at Elmdale public school. While not as big as the one held in June by the Friends of the Experimental Farm, it was still pretty much everything I think a book sale like that should be - a variety of books on a variety of subjects, both recent and decades-old, from authors and publishers both mainstream and obscure. We emerged with a small carton of 15 books plus a couple of movies (Apollo 13 and Gravity/Gravite (bilingual 2-disc special edition).

Here, in more or less random order, is what we bought:

ARRL Antenna Book 18th edition (for the ham in the family)

Through Black Spruce, by Joseph Boyden (hardcover, near mint-condition)

Conversations with a Dead Man: The Legacy of Duncan Campbell Scott, by Mark Abley (also hardcover and near mint condition)

Rosshalde, by Hermann Hesse

Born Naked, by Farley Mowat (paperback, like new, c.1993) - memoir

Perry Mason solves the Case of the Careless Kitten (paperback, c.1950)

G. by John Berger, c. 1972

The Death of an Ardent Bibliophile, by Bartholomew Gill

The Couple Next Door, by Shari Lapena (trade paperback, c. 2016)

Black Rock: An Eddie Dougherty Mystery, by John McFetridge, c.2014 (police procedural set in Montreal during the 1970 FLQ crisis)

Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages; by Ammon Shea (c2008, hardcover, another near-mint condition; it's about a man who set out to read the entire Oxford English Dictionary - and succeeded, and lived to tell the tale!)

Spilsbury's Coast: Pioneer years in the wet west, by Howard white and Jim Spilsbury (trade paperback, 1987)

The Only Snow in Havana, by Elizabeth Hay (paperback, 1992; "a personal reflection about Canadian identity, a poetic history about snow and fur, and a travel book about origins")

Supermarket Vegan: 225 meat-free, egg-free, dairy-free recipes for real people in the real world, by Donna Klein

The Great Vegetarian Cookbook, by Kathleen DeVanna Fish


The above should keep me happily engrossed for a while - plus I still have five of the seven library books I borrowed just over a week ago!

Back in 1976, while studying for my library degree at Western University, I encountered a chatty busdriver. When I told him I was going to library school, he said something like "Hmmm, libraries. Is that where they say 'Ssshhh'?" No one seems to say "SShh" in libraries any more. To be honest, I sometimes wish they would. It's one thing for libraries to offer enclosed meeting spaces for author readings and community events but frankly, when I'm in the stacks, I want to peruse the books in peace and not be constantly bombarded by loud conversations, clashing cellphone ringtones and bleeping video games.

On Wednesday evening, I had planned to attend an event called "Apartment613 Talks: The Future of Libraries" about the future of the public library in Ottawa, to be held at the Shopify Lounge in the Byward Market. As soon as I heard about it, via an e-mail from the Canadian Library Association's Ottawa Network, I replied saying I would like to attend but was not on Facebook (and was having trouble with the eventbrite registration software). I never got a reply. However, when I followed up on Wednesday afternoon (the site had originally indicated that registration would be accepted up to 6 PM), I learned that the event was sold out. I phoned CLA and left a message, which likewise was not returned. I was out of luck!

When I e-mailed Apartment613 to complain about my ill-fated attempt at registration, I DID at least get a prompt and fairly detailed reply, though not a very satisfying one. The gist of it was "This was an apartment613 event, not a CLA event. They just helped to promote it for us." Huh? You mean, in a debate on the future of the library, the three prominent librarian-panelists are just the handmaidens of Apartment613 (a "grassroots community media group")? Moreover, I had assumed that "Apartment613" was so-named because it puts on events in the Ottawa area and 613 is the telephone area code for eastern Ontario, but according to the e-mail, apartment 613 doesn't even HAVE a phone! Like, maybe that's part of the problem right there - no way to interact in real time with a real live person? How can you organize events like debates when that's the way you operate? I am singularly unimpressed with Apartment613 as well as with eventbrite and CLA.

But anyway, I started out this blog wanting to talk about the future of the public library, so that's what I'll now do. My first suggestion? Put libraries back in the hands of librarians instead of hotshot young aspie computer geeks who clearly think Google glasses are infinitely superior to reading glasses (if indeed they've even HEARD of reading glasses!) This suggestion, by the way, applies to ALL types of libraries, not just the public libraries (Library and Archives Canada and other government libraries spring to mind right about now). We're the skilled, educated professionals with Masters- and often higher-level degrees.

Secondly, be aware that a library is NOT the same thing as a bookstore. They perform related but distinct functions. In particular, bookstores - those that are NOT second-hand bookstores, that is - focus on CURRENT materials. There are no back-issues of periodicals, for example, and the books they stock are mostly published within the past couple of years. Those that are published earlier than that are usually by well-known living or recently-dead authors or they are the classics that never go out of print. I think public libraries these days focus a bit too much on current bestsellers, often buying a ridiculous number of copies, all of which takes away from the available budget for subscriptions or for discretionary purchases of excellent books which will all-too-soon be out of print and unavailable through normal channels. A library normally has a collection development policy establishing priorities for the areas within which it collects. A bookstore, understandably given its mandate, collects what will sell.

Another aspect of this library-is-not-a-bookstore is the whole notion of library as physical place and space. Bookstores may encourage browsing to some degree, but the ultimate aim is to get a maximum number of customers in and out as quickly as possible and to get them to part with as much of their money as possible. Even the coffee shops in bookstores, originally set up to encourage longer stays, now no longer allow unpaid-for merchandise in their cafe-areas. And the amount of space they devote to actual books and reading material is decreasing alarmingly! A library, on the other hand, can and should continue to have quiet spaces where people can stay and read or study all day if they so choose.

The Ottawa Public Library recently ran a kind of visioning exercise, asking people what they should start doing, continue doing, and stop doing. It was, of course, run on social media by some sort of outside consulting group and was offering various prizes and other incentives. I didn't participate, except to "lurk" and read what others were saying. It will be interesting to learn the results.

I still hope we will get a new Main branch of the Ottawa Public Library in the near future, even though I don't discount the importance of the smaller branches right in people's communities. But we shall see.

Hi. My name is Blogcutter and I'm a biblioholic.

Today I went to a book sale at Rockliffe Park Community Centre. There was already a line-up when I got there, about ten minutes before their 10 AM opening. I emerged around 11 AM with a shopping bag filled with 26 books and 2 videos - all for about what I would have paid for one new book. Some of the books I got looked as if they hadn't even been opened, let alone read. Others looked as if they'd been around the block a few times. Some of them I'll probably keep; others I'll probably read and pass along to others who share my addiction. My haul is listed and discussed below.

1) Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook - This was my only hard-cover book. In mint condition and copiously illustrated, it was evidently pre-owned by folk who never followed through on their noble intentions.

In the crime fiction category (no particular order):

2) The Hollow, by Agatha Christie (Poirot)
3) Smilla's Sense of Snow, by Peter Hoeg
4) The Fifth Woman, by Henning Mankell
5) Red Wolf, by Liza Marklund (Can you tell I'm on a Scandinavian crime novel jag?)
6) The Impossible Dead, by Ian Rankin

In the Canadiana category (again, no particular order):

7) Lunatic Villas, by Marian Engel
8) The Shack, by Wm Paul Young
9) Glass Voices, by Carol Bruneau
10) Coventry, by Helen Humphreys
11) One Hundred Years of an Ottawa Family, by Grace Day Hartwick
12) The Home Children, edited by Phyllis Harrison

In the "other fiction and literature" category (though that's a rather artificial distinction):

13) Jennie, by Paul Gallico
14) Something in Disguise, by Elizabeth Jane Howard
15) Affairs at Thrush Green, by Miss Read
16) The Aeneid of Virgil, a new verse translation by C. Day Lewis (new in 1952, that is)
17) Barbary Shore, by Norman Mailer (This should possibly go in the "humour" category: it purports to be his "explosive novel of love and violence in post-war America" and according to Mailer himself is "the richest of my first three novels" and "has a kind of insane insight into the psychic mysteries of Stalinists, secret policement, narcissists, children, Lesbians, hysterics, revolutionaries"
18) The Haunting (of Hill House) by Shirley Jackson
19) The Woman Destroyed, by Simone de Beauvoir
20) The Rector's Daughter, by F.M. Mayor
21) The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
22) Porterhouse Blue, by Tom Sharpe

And finally, in the miscellaneous non-fiction category:

23) The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus
24) Under the Sign of Saturn, by Susan Sontag
25) History the Betrayer: A Study in Bias, by E.H. Dance
26) A Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life, by Margaret Wade Labarge

The two videos I bought were:

Voices from a Locked Room and
Miracle on 34th Street (the classic 1947 version, starring Maureen O'Hara and Natalie Wood)

So that's all I'm writing for today, folks - more in the near future.