It appears that I am thoroughly incapable of passing up discount books. Late this afternoon I was meeting a friend for an early dinner and found myself downtown with about 30 minutes to spare. Naturally, being in the general vicinity of Bloor and Spadina, I strolled to my favourite used bookstore, BMV. Since I had been living in the States for a number of years, I missed its grand opening, and, in fact, didn't even know it existed until a few months ago when I dropped nearly $50 on 13 titles ranging from Haggard's She to Butler's The Way of All Flesh.
Books are my one weakness (quoting Dorcas Lane), and even the most innocent stroll by BMV never seems to remain an innocent stroll. Today, I was lured by their prodigious sidewalk sale: a veritable cornucopia of books were strewn about the storefront and a cursory scan yielded 5 titles of interest to yours truly at the bottom-basement price of $5.25 (tax included). John Galsworthy, Stendhal, and Thomas Hardy rounded out the familiar; Corelli's Mandolin (which I seem to recall having been adapted into a terrible film starring Nicholas Cage) and a Nice Work, by David Lodge, were my other two picks. The former intrigued me because of its setting, the latter because of its quotes from Disraeli's Sybil and Bronte's Shirley in what is evidently a contemporary novel. I hope it's as entertaining as I seem to think it will be.
BMV is really one of the best bookstores in the city, especially for book snobs like me. I hate spines that show any sign of wear, tattered edges, and reading classics other than those produced by Penguin or Oxford. Fortunately, for under $10 per reading copy -- and generally under $8 -- one can get a near-pristine book. I, however, need to commit to purchasing nothing else until I finish the ones I've already amassed, save, of course, my book club books. I'm still trying to catch up on year-old novels (Joseph Roth's The Radetzky March is currently being read, cracked open for the first time since '07).
Books are my one weakness (quoting Dorcas Lane), and even the most innocent stroll by BMV never seems to remain an innocent stroll. Today, I was lured by their prodigious sidewalk sale: a veritable cornucopia of books were strewn about the storefront and a cursory scan yielded 5 titles of interest to yours truly at the bottom-basement price of $5.25 (tax included). John Galsworthy, Stendhal, and Thomas Hardy rounded out the familiar; Corelli's Mandolin (which I seem to recall having been adapted into a terrible film starring Nicholas Cage) and a Nice Work, by David Lodge, were my other two picks. The former intrigued me because of its setting, the latter because of its quotes from Disraeli's Sybil and Bronte's Shirley in what is evidently a contemporary novel. I hope it's as entertaining as I seem to think it will be.
BMV is really one of the best bookstores in the city, especially for book snobs like me. I hate spines that show any sign of wear, tattered edges, and reading classics other than those produced by Penguin or Oxford. Fortunately, for under $10 per reading copy -- and generally under $8 -- one can get a near-pristine book. I, however, need to commit to purchasing nothing else until I finish the ones I've already amassed, save, of course, my book club books. I'm still trying to catch up on year-old novels (Joseph Roth's The Radetzky March is currently being read, cracked open for the first time since '07).
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