I often hear people complain about the extinction of mom’n’pop bookstores. I must take them at their word having moved from the country where government owned all the bookstores to Montreal just a few years before Coles on St Catherine became Chapters.

Chris and I do shop at Chapters quite a bit. It is as far as I know the easiest way of obtaining technical books that are not stocked in brick and mortar stores. We also buy specialty books such as cookbooks and gardening books there. But, I always make a point of buying more readily available books from smaller places. One such place is All Books on Rideau right next to Bytowne Cinema.

It does not have the cozy fanboy atmosphere of Nebula (now deceased) or the arcane righteousness of Argos and other old book man stores on St Catherine between Atwater and Guy, but I have been getting to like it more and more. It doesn’t look like much at first, but their business model is brilliant. It is right next to a repertoire cinema that will not let people into the building until just before the movie starts. There are also no decent cafés or any other distractions within a two block radius and the neighbourhood is sufficiently ugly that you do not want to go for a walk. It has a good combination of cheaper second hand books and bishojo shiny new books. The middle stack is always decked out with current events and historical/political books, while horizontal stacks of all kinds of intriguing material are layered right at the level of your idle hands.

I realised that I really like this bookstore one day when Chris and I were browsing in it waiting for a movie to start. There was a there was a girl in late teenage years whining and raving about different authors to her boyfriend and the store clerk. At first I was annoyed about the racket when I realised that this is pretty much what I sounded like when I was her age. Chris and I were browsing the books overhearing the whole conversation and trying not to snicker too loudly, when a woman (I guess in her twenties) walked up to the counter to buy a book. The clerk was quite impressed by her choice. Then she attempted to find her walled and dumped a 2kg bag of cat foodon the counter. This totally impressed the clerk who now went into a rant about how great cats are because if they want you to pet and snuggle them they let you know, unlike people. Then they went into a conversation about glasses and how cool the woman’s glasses were. In any case, it was one of those in passing moments.

So in conclusion to this rant I will list some great little places that are totally worth your patronage lest they go the way of the ole’ Nebula:

Bookstores:
All Books (Ottawa)
Vertex (Montreal)
Green Goblin (comics, Kanata)
Second Thoughts (Ottawa)
The Glebe Book Store (Ottawa)

Recordstores:
RecordRunner (Ottawa)
L’Oblique (Montreal)
Cheap Thrills (Montreal)

And here’s the latest scoop:

When: Sunday, October 17th, 2004
Where: Welcome Area in Gatineau Park (this is the first parking lot as you get into the park)
When: 10:00 AM
Bring: Snacks. We will be biking into the park, and will not get back until we get fed up with it. There are a few picnic areas along the way.
Evening attire. If everyone is up to it, we can go for dinner somewhere in the market or some such similar place. I, for one, will not be wearing my stinking goofy biking outfit.
Route: I got my fingers on a summer Gatineau Park map and there is a route that is parallel to the road and it goes almost to the Meech Lake (bring a spare Honda if you want to dump it – Chris’ joke). It connects up to the main road every so often so we can just turn back when we get fed up.

Directions to get to Gatineau Park:
(Chris’ directions for experts): Get to Ottawa, take any of the bridges and turn left immediately. Then drive to straight to the Gatineau Park sign, turn right and park in the first parking lot you see.
(Boj’s directions): From 417 take Bronson North exit go down Bronson and turn left on Somerset and then right on Booth. Booth will take you across the bridge. On Alexandre-Tache turn left, go over the little hill and look for big Gatineau Park sign. Turn right into the park and follow the signs to the Welcome Area.

Due to expressed interest I will be organizing yet another fun filled bike day. Here are the approximate plans:

Date: Saturday, October 2nd with rain date either Sunday October 3rd or next Saturday October 9th.
Location: Gatineau Park
Precise Meeting Place: TBD
Route: There is a two hour route that Chris and I biked few weeks ago that is pretty fun, but we’re still looking into it. Something a bit longer might make more sense, especially if people are coming in from Montreal. There is a map on Gatineau Park site but it is pretty puny. Chris and I will try and get a better map for the actual trip.
Time: 10:00 AM

If you are coming from Ottawa and need a ride, Chris and I can pick you up. If you’re coming from Montreal let me know (or post) and I will try and see if anyone else has a space. We can grab some lunch after the trip, or if it is a longer trip bring some snacks and then go out for supper later.

Let me know if you’re interested and if you have any preferences (trail length, difficulty level, meeting time, lunch options…)