By: Deanna McFadden
Recently, a young blogger friend of mine sent me an email about which bookstores she should visit while in the city as a graduation present. I promptly wrote back and told her that she should definitely take some time to wander around Pages on Queen Street. Founded in 1979, the Queen West shop has been a staple of Toronto's independent book scene not only for its selection of small press titles, extensive art books and focus on the Canadian literary scene, but also for its innovative This is Not a Reading Series.
Founded in 2003, it's simply that: not a reading series. Literary events that celebrate book launches without having the author stand up in front of a microphone and read an extensive passage from his/her work. Instead, the events often are witnesses to the individual characteristics of each title they promote. For example, the huge party in February for Ron Jeremy's Ron Jeremy: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz featured an on stage interview with Sasha Van Bon Bon, Eye magazine's sex columnist. While I wasn't around for that particular event, I was treated this past month to two different, yet excellent, literary events through the series.
 The first took place on Tuesday, April 10, at the Gladstone Hotel on Queen Street, when Alissa York's brilliant new novel Effigy had its Toronto launch. The Gladstone has become the go-to venue for literary events in the series. Since its refurbishing, and part of the entire renaissance of the area, the hotel is the perfect place to hold a good literary party. In conversation with Elizabeth Ruth, author of Smoke, York charmed the audience with her wit, humour and intelligence.
I like the series simply because it lets the reader see into the writing life of an author, which I always find fascinating; and it also gives you the chance to examine the author's inspiration behind the work. In York's case, she said something about how different her writing life is from her real life. Not in the physical sense, but in the mind's eye, how it allows you to go to many places where you would never imagine yourself in your day-to-day life. I found that so interesting that it's left me thinking about it more and more in the weeks since the reading.
More often than not, the interviews that take place at a This is Not a Reading Series event are less (I hate to say it) pompous and, well, staid, than their cousins over at the Harbourfront. They serve to remind literary scenesters like myself that novels are the result of many months, even years, of hard work, of rich imaginations, and in York's case, a slight obsession with taxidermy.
The second event I attended was at the Spin Gallery on April 24. The Canadian launch of Steven Hall's groundbreaking Raw Shark Texts, the book launch came complete with its own conceptual shark hunting boat built in the centre of the room (photos here). Pages's proprietor Marc Glassman was there that night and said a few words about the series and its continued success. Afterwards, he had some really lovely things to say about Hall, as well, who did actually do a very short reading (one page!) before he introduced the special feature of the Canadian launch: small handbooks of the Aquarium fragment, which serves as the *new* first chapter.
"This is the way the book starts everywhere but here," Hall said as he introduced the booklets. Over the course of the evening, he signed plenty, and took the time to chat with just about everyone about his intriguing novel. He’s handsome and charming, everything you want an author to be, as well as bloody talented, if Raw Shark Texts are the sign of anything.
All in all, they were two exceptional nights out on the town, and further cements This is Not a Reading Series events as a not-to-miss in terms of the upcoming months.
This month, there are two events at the Gladstone Hotel, the first is Linda McQuaig's launch of Holding the Bully's Coat: Canada and the U.S. Empire on May 1st. Then on May 2nd, it's Sky Gilbert and Zoe Whitthall in conversation with Maggie MacDonald, Elvira Kurt host. On Tuesday May 15th, Joanne Proulx launches her first novel Anthem Of A Reluctant Prophet with the Lullabye Arkestra. Finally, on May 23rd, Conundrum sends out a double launch of Catherine Kidd's Missing the Ark and Emily Holton's Little Lessons in Safety.
If you're feeling particularly woozy this month, it might be a good idea to miss Chuck Palahniuk at Chapters/Indigo at Yonge and Eglinton on May 22 at 7:00pm. Apparently, people were fainting the last time Palahniuk was in town to promote his deliciously creepy Haunted: a Novel. He's in town this time to promote his latest novel, Rant: the Oral History of Buster Casey.
Lots to keep book lovers busy this month!
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