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Becoming Vancouver

A History

"Becoming Vancouver" tells the story of the city from its earliest Indigenous inhabitants down to the present day.

Santa Claus (aka Canada Post) brought a wonderful Christmas present to my door this morning: a copy of Arvik! In Pursuit of the Bowhead Whale, hot off the presses. Arvik! is a new book from the Avataq Cultural Institute, a Montreal-based...

My Bookselling Career

August 26, 2013

On the west side of Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, near the corner of Smythe next door to the McDonald’s, there is a storefront which for many years has been occupied by a camera shop. In the 1960s, however, it was home to The Book Barrel, the...

My Newest Purchase

October 25, 2013

This is the only purchase I made during my recent trip to Europe. I bought it in Old Town Prague at the official Spartak outlet store which happens to be located on Husova Street directly beneath the hanging sculpture of Sigmund Freud. The...

Stan Persky RIP

October 31, 2024

I was sorry to hear last week about the death of Stan Persky in Berlin, where he had been living for several years. (Appreciations here and here) For many years Persky was one of BC’s finest writers: humane, intelligent, witty, tolerant; a voice so...

Glittering Prizes

October 30, 2024

White Riot, a walking tour/book by artist Henry Tsang (previously mentioned here), has won this year's City of Vancouver Book Award. Congratulations to the author, and to Arsenal Pulp Press for producing such a handsome volume.

Special Event

September 30, 2024

My pal Steve Osborne, co-founder of Geist magazine (with his partner Mary Schendlinger), is publishing a new collection of essays this fall with Arsenal Pulp Press. The launch is Thursday, October 10, at the People's Co-op Bookstore on...

Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative