NOW Toronto's Susan G. Cole notes how independent bookstores in Toronto are upset by a grant of money by the Toronto municipal government to a literary festival.

A grant from the Toronto Arts Council to the International Festival of Authors, bestowed last fall, has outraged programmers for the city’s independent bookstores ( Read more... )

blogTO's Phil Villeneuve shares the story of Toronto's Glad Day Bookshop, the oldest GLBT library in the world still operating.

Very few book stores in the world have been fought off widespread hate, battled censorship at the Supreme Court, and acted as home base for an entire community of people. Toronto's Glad Day bookshop has, which is why it's ( Read more... )

NOW Toronto's Natalia Manzocco describes another good reason to go to Glad Day Bookshop: Roncesvalles diner Cardinal Rule is setting up shop in the location's kitchen. I really like this addition to Glad Day's business model, not least because the idea of indie businesses collaborating for greater profit for everyone has a lot of appeal for me.

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CBC News' Ali Chiasson reports on Toronto's trade in stolen books.

Japanese author Haruki Murakami may be known worldwide for novels that straddle the border between the dreamworld and reality ( Read more... )

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• Apostrophen's 'Natha Smith talks about his tradition of the stuffed Christmas stocking.
• Beyond the Beyond's Bruce Sterling talks about the decline of the Pebble wearables.
• blogTO lists some of the hot new bookstores in Toronto.
  
• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks about some of her family's traditions.
• The Dragon's Tales looks at the ancient ( Read more... )

The Globe and Mail's Paul Willcocks gives an elegy for a notable independent bookseller in Victoria, British Colombia.

Jim Munro, who died suddenly at his Victoria home on Nov. 21 at 87, created one of the world’s great bookstores in a city of fewer than 400,000 people ( Read more... )

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I yesterday roused myself from home to visit Glad Day Bookshop on the final day of the store's existence at its 598A Yonge Street location. It will be reopening early next week at a new, more accessible and more flexible, location on Church Street. Even so, it was the end of an era: I had to stop by.


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I will have to keep out an eye for Flying Books. The National Post's Michael Melgaard writes about this project.

“We’re not actually in Flying Books,” Martha Sharpe explains from behind the counter of the Weekend Variety, a general store/gift shop/artsy curiosity emporium on Toronto’s Queen West. “We’re not there until we’re standing in front of ( Read more... )