With Literacy Month here, we paid a visit to iconic bookstores Type Books (Spadina/St. Clair) and Ben McNally Books (Bay/Richmond). Who’s poised to take the title of best indie bookstore in Toronto.? You make the call.
Type Books |
vs. |
Ben McNally Books |
| (Co-owner) Joanne Saul, Type Books, 2006 | Owners and year opened: |
Ben McNally, Ben McNally Books, 2007 |
| Impossible! My top three would have to include My Car, Anne of Green Gables and Mill on the Floss. | Favourite books of all time: | The Master and Margarita by Mikhall Bulgakov. The two interlocking narratives are remarkable; funny in places, profound in others. |
| The holidays for sure, but Mother’s Day is a close second. | Busiest time of the year: | October is our busiest time. We have at least one event almost every night. |
| What is an e-reader? | Thoughts on e-readers: | I don’t think about e-readers. |
| A $1,200, XL edition of Harry Benson: The Beatles from Taschen. | Priciest title in the store: | Taking My Time by Joel Meyerowitz. It retails for $750. |
| Sarah Polley, Michelle Williams and Atom Egoyan, to name a few. | Most notable customer: | I would have difficulty picking one at the expense of others. Lots of our customers are publicly active in various ways. |
| (I’ll be) making a donation to Word-Play, a non-profit reading and writing enrichment program for school-age kids that runs out of our Queen Street location. | Plans for Word on the Street and Literacy Month: | We’ll be selling books at the Random House Remarkable Reads Booth at the Word on the Street. |
| 427 SPADINA RD. | 366 BAY ST. |