Sunday, May 6, 2007

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

While visiting Halifax this past weekend for a conference I had some free time to explore the literary community which led me to these discoveries:

  • Best Second Hand Bookstore (as rated by readers of "The Coast" weekly guide)-- John W. Doull Bookseller at 1684 Barrington Street. Now this bookstore looked like a hybrid between your grandmother's attic and a tornado with books located in every available area of the store!! In some aisles I had to be careful not to bump into stacks of books thus risking toppling them everywhere. I had to laugh when I read the signs that requested patrons to "return the books in alpha orders for future shoppers" -- wow, good thing the fire marshal wasn't visiting the store!! Overall, a very fun experience to simply explore their thousands of random titles.
  • Online Book Club -- created for readers of the local newspaper it can be found at; www.hfxnews.ca under the heading, "HfxBookTalk", which provides content for publishing in the newspaper. Overall I thought this was an ideal blend of "old" and "new" media operations.
  • Atlantic Books Awards -- this ceremony is set for May 11th at "Pier 21" (see "Our Home and Native Land" at http://spacebeaglenotes.blogspot.com). For more information on the award categories which include best fiction, best Atlantic-published, best poetry, etc. readers can visit; www.writers.ns.ca/bookfest07

Read widely and read locally,

Todd

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