My posts have been a little absent lately! I hope to change that, but some exciting news first – I’ve been accepted into the PhD program for Library and Information Sciences. I’m looking forward to going back into school in the Fall and being able to continue my bookbinding with Dan.

To get myself started in posts again I will do something briefly on my trip out West to Vancouver. A friend of mine and I spent the day visiting bookstores (we only got to two).

The Paper Hound

This was our first stop, and probably my favorite of the two. It was a small little book shop but very nicely organized. I ended up buying a very nice copy of a 1901 edition of seven tales by Edgar Allen Poe, in lovely leather binding and in very good condition. It is a small book in size but I quite like it.

They also had a cigarette dispenser that dispensed poetry instead of cigarettes which was fantastic! We found it slightly ironic that the first line of the poem we got was “I am becoming old” and this year, and that visit marked 10 years since my high school graduation.

MacLeod’s Books

The second book shop we visited was MacLeod’s Books, this was one a sea of chaos but wonderful chaos.

This one had books from floor to ceiling and then precariously stacked all over the floor to create narrow walk ways and wobbling stacks.

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Trying to find anything in there is nothing short of impossible. I think I would need to spend a whole day or more in the store! I found it a little overwhelming and would have liked to probably just had the whole store to myself to browse at my leisure instead of having to share tiny aisle space with people passing through.  I am quite certain though they probably have some hidden valuable gems buried in there! They do have some glass cases containing their valuable books but everything else is, as you can see, a free for all to sort through.

We only got to two that day but we enjoyed a nice lunch and time spent at the water. It was good to be back home for my very short trip! Upon returning home it wasn’t long before I made my way to the used bookstore in town (Attic Books), one of the best in Canada.  I bought myself a book on bookbinding (which will make an appearance in my next blog post in which I give a list of book recommendations once again) and I bought some old books from the 1600s and 1700s that are limp vellum bindings as I didn’t have any of those in my collection. I will do a post on those as well at some point!

Well that’s all for now, here is hoping I can keep up blogging once again!

Until next time,