My last shopping stop for the 2022 Toronto trip is Bakka-Phoenix Books, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. I didn't notice that there was still a used book section in my last trip, so I'm hoping to spend a bit of time there and find some of the more obscure replacements for my collection, as per the ongoing (and apparently never-ending) book cataloguing project.
Unfortunately, the store's been closed over the Easter weekend, my flight home leaves at 4:00 PM, and they don't open their doors until 11:00 in the morning. It shouldn't be a problem, I just need to keep an eye on the clock and make sure that I have enough time to grab my luggage from hotel storage and get down to the Union Pearson Express train at Union Station for the 1:00 PM departure at the latest.
I'm confident enough that I don't camp on the doorstep - as I mentioned in my Silver Snail posting, that makes you look a bit overeager - but I'm there within ten minutes of opening.
I've done some pre-shopping research, so I stop at the New Releases display to get a copy of Escape from Yokai Land by Charles Stross, in hardcover at $26.99. Not a crazy price for hardcover, really, and it's part of Stross' excellent H.P Lovecraft-meets-John le Carré Laundry series, which I've quite enjoyed and is overdue for a new book in the Bob Howard narrative. At least, it's not a crazy price until you get to the store and discover that it's only 96 pages. I take a hard pass and head downstairs to look at the used book offerings.
The lower area is a bit industrial, rather like visiting someone's partially finished rec room. Based on the setup, it's being used for signings and other public events in addition to housing the used books and TV/movie franchise material. Having enough space for group events is a smart addition, things used to be quite cramped at the original Queen Street location - maybe I won't recommend that they move back after all.
I'm a bit surprised to find that even Canada's best known science fiction bookstore doesn't have a comprehensive catalogue of used books, at least by my standards - in fact, I don't see anything on the downstairs bookshelves that's of interest.
However, I don't leave empty-handed, although I'm a bit concerned about loading too much more into my carry-on luggage. I pick up A Practical Guide to Conquering the World, the third novel in K. J. Parker's entertaining fantasy series in trade paperback, and a signed copy of Memory's Legion, the postscript to the Expanse series that collects all the short stories and novellas that act as grace notes to the main storyline. In addition to it being signed, at least at 432 pages for $35.00 I feel more like I'm getting my money's worth out of the purchase.
Coda:
I pay for the books, charge out the door and up to the Spadina subway stop, switch to Yonge, jump off at Dundas and collect my luggage, jump back on, and it's straight down to Union. It's a bit of a hike from the subway exit to the Pearson platform, but I still make the 12:30 train. It conveniently stops at my terminal, NEXUS gets me through security in short order, and I'm at the gate with lots of time to spare. Good to see that I've kept my skills through two years of COVID-19 travel restrictions.
- Sid
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