Time to book hunt?

If it looks like I blogged about it before, it is because I did. Recently at work, my colleagues and I discussed about the struggle bookshops were into, because of online shopping. Then there was this post by fellow Montrealer Kevin Burton Smith on his blog, which reminded me that I had not been in a bookshop for ages. We have here a W.H. Smith, but it is more like a glorified stationary shop. The rest are charity shops and, while you can find sometimes treasures, it is mostly poor quality paperbacks. I am longing to go to a decent size Waterstone's, where I can use my card, or Olivieri in Montreal, or Chapters in Ottawa, or... Well, anywhere I can find a decent choice. I want to book hunt. Sure, I have plenty of books, more than I have time to read. My books are scattered in two countries and no less than two cities and one town. Still, book hunting is a ritual I need to do from time to time. It is an overwhelming feeling like real hunting is for the hunter.

Musing on loyalty cards

I was just checking the cards in my wallet tonight. Among all the useful and essential stuff I had there, I (re)discovered my Waterstone's loyalty card and my Chapters loyalty card, which I bought in Ottawa. I receive plenty of promotional emails from them, I barely notice them anymore. My name is mispelled on the Waterstone's card. That was to be expected, I guess. I once bought something from them and the woman at the till had said that Guillaume was the name of his son. She had married a French man. Every time I take my card out to pay something, I think about this anecdote: I actually have met a British woman whose son shared my name, she married a French man and she works, or worked, at Waterstone's.

That said, I go less and less to a bookstore. So I don't use my loyalty cards. I got the Chapters one not because I go there often,  heck I hardly ever went there when I was living in Montreal (except once or twice, including once to hand in my c.v. when I was struggling to find a job), but because it reminds me of home. Even though I got it in Ottawa, of all places. Which is as far from home as it can be, whatever place you call home. All the same, I looked at these cards and I thought it was very sad: I haven't been in a bookshop in a long while. Sure, there is the Oxfam charity, second hand bookshop and the WH Smith's glorified stationary shop. But I meant a real, proper bookshop. I have loyalty cards, but I haven't felt like a loyal customer in a long while.

Three things I actually loved about Ottawa

As I mentioned here, I am not a big fan of the capital of Canada. In fact, my dislike of it is close to contempt. It looks and feels like an English city from which the soul had been sucked out, leaving a dry, bland, cold shell. City of bureaucrats, of tourists, so close to Québec geographically yet a continent away in its mentality. I felt like a foreigner, when I heard the voices of Quebeckers I thought they were immigrants and the Couche-Tard dépanneurs there were as much part of the place as an Indian take-away is in England: taking roots there yet not from there.

That said, there are three things I actually and genuinely enjoyed in Ottawa, enough to make me consider another visit:

-The Rideau Canal (picture on the left). During winter you can skate on it. I was stupid as I didn't bring ice skates (my brother had some but I didn't want to carry them all the way). Ice skating is maybe the only sport, with swimming, where I am actually good and which I enjoy. I could have ice skated all my way there. Heavenly. I didn't. I missed Paradise. In Ottawa, of all places.

-The Chapters bookstore. I could have spent the day there. I could have spent a lot of money (especially since Canadian dollars are worth more these days AND there are taxes on books). I behaved and bought only three (one a gift to my bro). But I took a loyalty card. Since it's a chain and there is one in Montreal (I even gave my c.v. there in another life), I will not have to go to Ottawa to use it. But I have to admit, the one in Ottawa was every bit as a bookstore should be.

-The campus of the University of Ottawa. I walked through it, went in its buildings and I don't know why but really loved it. Maybe I just love any campus, deep down. Maybe I just miss academia. It's not like walking on the campus of the University of Liverpool, but in any case it was a nice campus.