Thursday, July 31, 2014

On the News this week...


This might become a weekly installment about book related news, let's see how it goes

I have been living in Montreal for almost 5 years now and I really like this city. Regardless of the fact that winter settles here for almost 6 months every year thank you very much, it is an amazing city, full of restaurants, museums, site seeing and good bookstores, both indie and chains.

This week, I learned that one of the biggest stores of Chapters (think Barnes and Noble, or Waterstones but in Canada) located in downtown Montreal is closing...and it will be replaced by a Victoria's Secret. This is bothering and it has nothing to do with VS. Granted I do not like VS; I feel inadequate with my body after five minutes of watching their famous Angel fashion show; I could not find anything that felt comfortable at their store; I do not like the fact that they have an underwear line for girls that looks sometimes lie lingerie for girls. But this is a general feeling I get often with some lingerie companies. This is not however what upsets me about them replacing Chapters.

What bothers me is that is not a bookstore replaced by an art gallery, or a small museum, or even a new restaurant. Now there will be a retail lingerie store...in front of ANOTHER lingerie store (in this case La Senza) that is a few steps from ANOTHER lingerie store (La Vie en Rose), sure there is still La Maison de la Presse International, but its dedicated as the name shows, to press. To quote my boyfriend, is not like a form of culture is being replaced by another one form...is bras all over the place.

It is true that a couple of steps nearby of the Chapters in question you find Odyssey, a nice place for buying and selling books; if I remember correctly is only Anglophone literature so there is a bit less offer than what you could find on Chapters. But again, my point is not that we are losing a place where to buy books, there are tons of places here, and that is great...is the nature of the replacement that makes me sad.

What do you think of this type of situation? I would love to see your comments

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