Bookstores, Part II



Illahie, Victoria, BC

 In August 2007, I was transferred by the Canadian Forces from my job in Comox down island to Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Esquimalt, in Victoria. Since Jo and I were well settled in Comox and she had a good job there, we decided that I would go down by myself and either come home weekends or she and Nikki would come and spend time there as they could.

I ended up renting a place off St Charles Street in Victoria. It was an old mansion that had belonged to the first big lumber baron.  You can see the place on the left; it was quite fantastic and I had the one of the top floor flats (there were three).



Living room

 My rooms ran the whole length of the front of the house, consisting of a bedroom, living room and kitchen. The picture to the right is actually the living room of the apartment that backed onto mine, but it was very similar.

For the first few months, I generally drove back to Comox on Friday afternoon and then returned on Sunday. In 2008 and until I retired from the military in Apr 2009, Jo and Nikki came down more and more often to Victoria. In fact quite often Jo worked out in Sydney at the other Tab Store (that was the name of the store in Courtenay.)

So often on a Saturday, when Jo was working in Sydney, I would spend an afternoon walking around the downtown, visiting the various book and comic book stores there. There were many new and used book stores down town and just near my apartment and as well, on Johnson Street a number of comic book stores.

Comic Book Stores

I'll start with the comic book stores. Legends and Curious Comics were the two main comic stores I frequented. Curious Comics is a chain, that has stores in other locations on the island and on the mainland. Besides comics, it specialized in games, comic related knick-knacks, etc. Legends, located just up the street from Curious Comics was an interesting place, with a wide variety of new and used and collectible type comics. It was always fun to look through its back-issues and catch up on some of those that I had missed before. I started to collect the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, plus other Alan Moore series there and also J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars series.

New Books



Munro's Books



The best store for buying new books in Victoria, is in my opinion  Munro'sBooks.
It began in 1963, owned by Jim Munro and his wife, author Alice Munro. They started on Fort Street and after another moved, finally settled in its current location in 1984.

The store is great, lots of selection and I love the displays. I've purchased many a Xmas present and added to my collections as well.

An interesting story about Munro's Books. Jo was trying to find me a copy of Sheila Munro's book, Lives of Mothers and Daughters; Sheila's biography of her life with her parent's, Alice and Jim Munro.

Jo checked on line, checked the local book stores in Comox and was having no luck as the book had been out of print. Well, Jo called Munro's Books to see if they might have a copy. She talked to Jim Munro's partner but they didn't have a copy either.

But very shortly afterwards, Sheila Munro called Jo as they had called her to see if she might have some copies, herself. Unbeknown to me, Jo made an arrangement to purchase one of Sheila's copies. To finish off the story, one Saturday afternoon just before Xmas, Sheila knocked on our door, at our place in Comox and personally delivered me a signed copy of her book. It turns out she lives across the Straits in Powell River, BC and had some errands to run in Comox anyway. Anyway, I guess I've nattered on a bit, but just to say, that Munro's has fond memories for me in many ways.



Ivy's Books



Another cute little book store in Victoria is
Ivy's Books, in Oak Bay. Oak Bay is a lovely little area of shops, bakeries, tea shops, antique stores, art galleries and Ivy's Books, as well as another I'll discuss later, Grafton Books.

Ivy's is a small shop, but has a nice selection, especially of biographies and fiction, as well as magazines from England. It's a great place




Cadboro Bay Books



The other new book store that I want to mention is the Cadboro Bay Book Store, located, where else, but in the Cadboro Bay area of Victoria. It's a genteel sort of area, quite quaint and nice to wander around. There aren't a lot of shops in this small corner of Victoria, but enough to make an enjoyable place to spend a couple of hours.

The book store is hidden in a small courtyard and possesses a lovely, different collection of fiction, children's books and others. I found it to be a very eclectic store to wander around.

Used and Antique Books

There were quite a few stores I spent my time wandering around in my search for used books. Besides Victoria, I also went up to Sydney (about 30 minutes drive) to visit Jo and also spend time looking at the used book stores up in Sydney. But my favourite time was to wander through the book stores in downtown Victoria.

The first store I'll mention is the Grafton Bookshop, located in the same area as Ivy's Books. It was an excellent store, especially if you were looking for antique books. I found my copy of Arthur Conan Doyle's book on the Boer War as well as another that he wrote concerning specific time frames in World War I. We found many interesting books there and it had a very wide selection.

Russell Books, located on Fort Street, has been there since 1962. It occupies two stories, the main floor displaying calendars, children's books and a variety of others. I tended to go to the second floor, accessed by a narrow stairway immediately off Fort Street. It had my genre of books, science fiction, mystery and fiction and it had an excellent selection.

The final store I'll mention is one of my all-time favourite bookstores. Even the name is different. Chronicles of Crime, located further up Fort Street. It's another neat area of Victoria; our favourite Indian restaurant was there, plus a number of antique and collectible stores.  As you may have guessed from the store name, Chronicles of Crime specialized in crime/ mystery stories, both used and collectible. It was organized in such a neat way; not your standard, A-Z listing, but rather, by genre's of mystery. Shelves dedicated to French mystery writers, female detectives, police stories, spy thrillers, hard boiled fiction. It was a neat store, and had a feel of a mystery book store. Jo bought me quite a few of my Ian Rankin, Rebus stories there. It was just a fun place to spend an hour or so, looking at books and enjoying talking with the proprietress. Great place.

Anyway, enough nattering on and on. Suffice it to say, one of the best things about being in Victoria was the book stores and having my family spend time with me while I was there. In Mar 2009, I retired from the Forces and now we are happily living back in Comox, where we belong. :0)







Bookstores (Part 1)

One of my favourite past times is wandering around bookstores. It doesn't matter if it's for new or used books. It's all the same to me. Jo is very patient because when we go out, I usually find a way to visit one or two. :0)

I thought I might post about some of my favourite book stores, although this might end up being a short topic as I can't really remember too many book stores from before I came to Vancouver Island. But I'll do my best.

Let's start off with the book stores in the Comox Valley; the towns of Courtenay and Comox.

I tend to stick to my favourites. When I'm looking for new books, there is The Laughing Oyster on 5th Street in Courtenay. I must say they do give out a lot of book marks; a nice variety if I do say so. We have a new rule in the house, no new book marks unless one leaves. Anyway, I really enjoy wandering around there. It has great fiction and mystery sections. I like the way it's laid out, even to the stools where you can sit down while scouring bookshelves. It's where I was introduced to Donna Leon's mysteries and Charlaine Harris' Lily Bard mystery series amongst others. I've also found quite a few nice Design / Decorating books for the missus there.

The other store I head to for new books is Blue Heron Books on Comox Avenue in Comox. It's a smaller store than The Laughing Oyster, but it's kind of quaint. I tend to find fiction books that I haven't seen elsewhere. I think because it's nice and small that it's easier to take my time and look at everything in the shelves. I found Margaret Atwood's The Flood there and also was introduced to Iain M. Banks for the first time (neat book cover on The Algebraist). I also like their small history section and have found quite a few books for my father dealing with the Royal Canadian Navy.

The other book stores I spend the most time in are used bookstores. The first is in Courtenay, just up the road from The Laughing Oyster. It's called ABC Books and Inner Sanctum. I think the first time I went in there was to check out the comic books. I had moved to Comox from Ottawa in 2001 and for the past few years in Ottawa had begun collecting comic books again.

This was thanks to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was one of my favourite television shows. I had noticed one time that there was now a Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book series and had begun religiously collecting them. This revived my childhood interest in comics and I had also begun collecting a variety of other series; Fathom, Witchblade, Tomb Raider, etc. (Yup, I like comic series about full-figured, independent - minded, strong heroines. :0)). Anyway, when I got to Comox, I wanted to see if there was a comic book store in the area. I discovered that ABC Books sold them. Hence, my checking the place out. While their comic book selection, in-store, is relatively small, they do a thriving mail-order business, much to my delight. I now have my regular comic series, plus a few new ones, revised periodically that I order through ABC Books. They also have an excellent used book selection, especially mysteries, sci-fi, fantasy, War, etc. They also sell some books on consignment, and I've managed to find some older books that I used to read as a kid, such as the Ian Fleming books, Alistair MacLean, Lester del Rey. I also got most of my CS Forester, Horatio Hornblower books there. It's a great place to browse in; plus I like their credit system, rather than cash for books turned in, you get credit and much more than if you got cash. You can use this against most of the used books. And you've got to like a place where they know your name. :0).

The last bookstore I want to mention is Nearly New Books in Comox. It's moved once since I got here and has changed owners as well, but still seems to be holding its own thanks to the latest owners. It's got an extensive selection of books, especially mysteries and I am always able to find something there that I've been looking for. They also have a good credit exchange program. My only problem with these programs is that I actually have to get rid of some of my books. But once in awhile I do find one or two that I know I won't read ever again and probably don't mind turning in.. once in awhile.. lol.

There are a couple of other book stores in the area, such as the Coles in the Driftwood Mall and another nice used book store near 5th Street in Courtenay, Second Page Books. But like everyone, I've got my favourites.

Anyway, that's my first post on bookstores. In future ones, I'll highlight stores in Victoria, Dubai, etc.

I'd like to end this Blog on a bit of a tangent. I displayed some of the book marks that the Laughing Oyster hands out when you purchase books there. I've got book marks from a few of the other stores I frequented in other cities, especially Victoria. But the ones I use when I'm reading are two other ones. One is a bookmark that a Buffy friend sent me one time and the other is one that Jo bought me as a Xmas present. I love them both. And it's convenient when I usually have two books on the go at any one time. 

I'll leave you on that note. I'm thinking that next time I'll start with the first book in my Top Ten list of favourite books. See you then.