And the prize for the most photogenic bookstore goes to... Macleod's Books!!
Here’s something that’s a little embarrassing. After eight years of writing in various guises online I’ve never once plugged a single bookstore. They’ve provided me with places to meet friends on a rainy day, afternoons of musings through random meanderings in aisles, a quick fix of something inexpensive but invaluable, a great place to launch a book or hear an author read, etc. and so on. Not that I haven’t recommended bookstores to friends, family and students, but I’ve never thought to lend support online. I wondered about this the other day and the more I thought about it the more I realized that setting up a category of Local Bookstores is the very least a writer/reader/lover of books can do to help increase awareness about the bookstores that are out there for people to wander into and discover something new. Duthie’s closed recently and I certainly hope we don’t have to witness the end of any other bookstores in Vancouver for a while. I would urge other writer/bloggers to be sure to include lists of local bookstores on their websites in order to keep these important places in the front and center of our consciousness. I certainly don’t want to see my city going the way of Laredo, Texas where bookstores are extinct. As important as new forms of media are, there are certain “real world” entities that need to survive if we hope to have informed and meaningful discussions and thoughts online and off.