One of my earliest memories is of visiting the small book store near my house in NDG to buy Sweet Valley High books. Yes, I admit it. I started babysitting at age 11, and I'm certain that 75% of my earnings went for those slim volumes that I gobbled up weekly. I didn't know what an independent bookstore was then, but it was a great adventure, and may books accessible to me as a kid that I wouldn't have had other than the library (which I also frequented on a regular basis). That bookstore still exists, though in a slightly different form: it sells mainly bibles. Which was handy when I was studying religion in CEGEP and needed to buy a bible. From Sweet Valley High to the New and Old Testament - quite a journey!
Later in life, and long before I became an author, I made it a point of trying to spread my book buying habit around. For every book I bought at Chapters or Indigo, I'd buy one at Nicholas Hoare in Westmount, close to where I lived. And then when I became an author, I made a point of touring the independent bookstores in the Montreal and Ottawa area with the wonderful Mike Mason (Harper's local rep) signing stock and meeting the owners. I was also impressed with the enthusiasm these owners had for books. One usually meets people who don't love what they are doing; that was never true at any independent bookstore I visited. As an author, when one is lucky enough to have their book released out into the world, they hope that someone will read it outside of their family. To encounter people who work with books all day and who have not only loved it, but are recommending it to their customers is a special thrill.
There's a lot of talk these days about the place of bookstores in general and independent bookstores in particular. Are they in trouble? Is there a surge? Both are probably true. What seems clear is that those who survive - and those who will survive - are those that continue to be innovative in ways of connecting readers to books. In providing something that large stores and online stores cannot: that special enthusiasm for books that inspired me all those years ago and continues to do so today.
(c) 2016 Catherine McKenzie
Catherine McKenzie:
A graduate of McGill University in History and Law, Catherine practises law in Montreal, where she was born and raised. Catherine's novels, SPIN, ARRANGED, FORGOTTEN and HIDDEN, are all international bestsellers and have been translated into numerous languages, including French, German, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, Slovakian and Czech. HIDDEN was also a #1 Amazon bestseller and a Digital Bookworld bestseller for five weeks. She has also published a novella, SPUN, which is a sequel to SPIN.
Catherine’s fifth novel, SMOKE, was published by Lake Union in 2015, and was named one of the Top 100 Books of 2015 on Amazon. She is currently at work on her sixth novel.