Prince Rupert’s Bookstores.
23 August 2011 | posted at Port McNeill
Elsie Hulsizer
Photo: Rainforest books.
One of our tasks in Prince Rupert was to take Glacier, Bears and Totems around to the bookstores. It had been three years since we’d been there so I didn’t know what to expect. Would the bookstores still be there? With a bad economy, Amazon.com and e-readers, they could have gone out of business.
As we walked up the hill to 2nd Avenue, I scanned the storefronts. Where was Rainforest Books? I remembered it as being somewhere around here but wasn’t sure where. Then I saw it: the name in bold letters and an open sign in the window.
Inside the shop, a Native woman sat at a desk behind a computer, surrounded by miscellaneous bookshelves, piles of books and a comfortable green sofa. A sign above the desk announced this was an award-winning aboriginal-owned business.
“Can I help you?” the woman asked.
“I’m wondering if you stock a book I wrote,” I told her, showing her Glaciers, Bears and Totems.
“No. I haven’t seen it, but I’d be glad to look at it,” she told me.
I handed her the book and she looked through it.
“Our tourist season is almost over for this year and if we don’t get a cruise ship next year, who knows what will happen. But maybe I could order some for the Christmas season.”
Steve and I browsed through the shop which is well supplied with new and used books on BC history as well as fiction. We both found a couple of books to buy to restock Osprey’s library which now holds mostly books that at least on of us has already read. After we paid for the books, the woman told me. “I’m going to order your book even if it is the end of the tourist season.”
Our next stop was Eddie’s News on Third Avenue. It couldn’t be more different than Rain Forest Books. Two unadorned rooms with neat shelves of new books and magazines confronted us. The books were mostly paperbacks and I hesitated to show the owner my book but I screwed up courage and took it to the cash register where he was dispensing lottery tickets to a customer.
I needn’t have worried. He took one look at Glaciers, Bears and Totems and said, “That’s just the kind of book I like. And I already buy from Harbour Publishing. Come back next year and you’ll be able to sign some here.”
Our third stop was the Museum of Northern B.C. where their gift shop is well supplied with serious studies of Native culture, history and natural history as well as a shelf of guides and travel stories. I didn’t see Glaciers, Bears and Totems so I showed it to the woman behind the desk,
“Oh, we carry that book already,” she told me. She walked over the shelves and started looking for it, finally finding it shelved among books on bears.
If you’re looking to restock your boat’s library, Prince Rupert is a good place to do it.