Literature

Iconic Indie Bookstore Closing on 30th Anniversary

By Mia Herrera

 

Toronto’s literary world has been in an uproar since July 10 upon hearing that Pages bookstore, located on the corner of Queen and John, will be closing on their 30th Anniversary due to impossible-to-meet rent increases.

 

Pages Books is one of the most iconic independent bookstores that’s donated a lot to the Toronto literary scene. Pages has always been more than “just a bookstore”. It has been a cultural meeting place for years and has done a lot to promote the arts in Toronto through organizing literary and artistic events and through their notable “Pages Art Window” – a section of their storefront window “dedicated to displaying the works of local artists”. Pages’ proprietor Marc Glassman was once even charged with obscenity for a feminist art display. Due to an overwhelming display of community support, however, the Criminal Code’s definition of obscenity was overturned. Tidbits like these are just small examples of the impact one cultural centre can have on an entire city.

 

Six years ago, Glassman also started a program called This Is Not a Reading Series (or TINARS for short). Held in various cultural venues throughout the city, TINARS features authors and performers with new and upcoming work. The only catch: No actual readings are allowed! As a result, Glassman’s series has housed hundreds of unforgettable events, from intense discussions about poetry, hangovers and pot, to music performances, film screenings, sculpture displays, puppetry, acrobatics and dancing. TINARS, which is organized in conjunction with publishers, cultural organizations, and non-profit committees, has become one of Toronto’s more notable gatherings over the past few years – an event where people can truly experience something new and different. Luckily, Glassman will not be ending TINARS just because Pages is closing. In the meantime, however, he will continue searching for a new venue where book selling and cultural events may both occur.

If you would like to experience one last moment in Pages history, be sure to visit the Gladstone Hotel Ballroom at 7:30pm on Tuesday, September 8 for a special TINARS event: Afterword: A Celebration of 30 Years. TINARS will host many of the artists and thinkers whose work has been featured on Pages’ shelves and each will provide a short tribute to Glassman and Pages Books. Tributes will be followed by Canadian Comedy Award winners Monkey Toast, who will perform improvised comedies based on others’ experiences of Pages. If Pages has donated something to your life, the opportunity to have your Pages story preformed by Monkey Toast is still available. A request has been issued for everyone to send in their unique Pages Books story. Send your story over to my.pagesbooks.story@gmail.com by August 24, and maybe we’ll see your story onstage.

Even without following everyday book trends, the precariousness of the book industry is evident just by contemplating today’s society. In a world where the computer rules and information is increasingly transmitted through tech-savvy means, people often wonder whether or not the book as an object is becoming obsolete. After all, what is the point of books when you have e-readers like the Kindle, which stores hundreds of books in one handy gadget? Who has the time or money to spend on a book when you can just download it for free on your iPhone or read it on the Internet? Actually, who has the time to read at all in such a fast-paced world? To be honest, my heart sank upon hearing that Pages Books was closing. Was it an affirmation that the book has really become obsolete? But the uproar the store’s closure has caused, and the amount of support and feedback the event has received, shows that the literary industry is a fighting and thriving one – one that won’t disappear anytime soon.


To read more about Pages’ closure, check out Pages’ official press release on their website, or its coverage in the Globe and Mail or the Toronto Star.

By Mia Herrera

 

Toronto’s literary world has been in an uproar since July 10 upon hearing that Pages bookstore, located on the corner of Queen and John, will be closing on their 30th Anniversary due to impossible-to-meet rent increases.

 

Pages Books is one of the most iconic independent bookstores that’s donated a lot to the Toronto literary scene. Pages has always been more than “just a bookstore”. It has been a cultural meeting place for years and has done a lot to promote the arts in Toronto through organizing literary and artistic events and through their notable “Pages Art Window” – a section of their storefront window “dedicated to displaying the works of local artists”. Pages’ proprietor Marc Glassman was once even charged with obscenity for a feminist art display. Due to an overwhelming display of community support, however, the Criminal Code’s definition of obscenity was overturned. Tidbits like these are just small examples of the impact one cultural centre can have on an entire city.

 

Six years ago, Glassman also started a program called This Is Not a Reading Series (or TINARS for short). Held in various cultural venues throughout the city, TINARS features authors and performers with new and upcoming work. The only catch: No actual readings are allowed! As a result, Glassman’s series has housed hundreds of unforgettable events, from intense discussions about poetry, hangovers and pot, to music performances, film screenings, sculpture displays, puppetry, acrobatics and dancing. TINARS, which is organized in conjunction with publishers, cultural organizations, and non-profit committees, has become one of Toronto’s more notable gatherings over the past few years – an event where people can truly experience something new and different. Luckily, Glassman will not be ending TINARS just because Pages is closing. In the meantime, however, he will continue searching for a new venue where book selling and cultural events may both occur.

If you would like to experience one last moment in Pages history, be sure to visit the Gladstone Hotel Ballroom at 7:30pm on Tuesday, September 8 for a special TINARS event: Afterword: A Celebration of 30 Years. TINARS will host many of the artists and thinkers whose work has been featured on Pages’ shelves and each will provide a short tribute to Glassman and Pages Books. Tributes will be followed by Canadian Comedy Award winners Monkey Toast, who will perform improvised comedies based on others’ experiences of Pages. If Pages has donated something to your life, the opportunity to have your Pages story preformed by Monkey Toast is still available. A request has been issued for everyone to send in their unique Pages Books story. Send your story over to my.pagesbooks.story@gmail.com by August 24, and maybe we’ll see your story onstage.

Even without following everyday book trends, the precariousness of the book industry is evident just by contemplating today’s society. In a world where the computer rules and information is increasingly transmitted through tech-savvy means, people often wonder whether or not the book as an object is becoming obsolete. After all, what is the point of books when you have e-readers like the Kindle, which stores hundreds of books in one handy gadget? Who has the time or money to spend on a book when you can just download it for free on your iPhone or read it on the Internet? Actually, who has the time to read at all in such a fast-paced world? To be honest, my heart sank upon hearing that Pages Books was closing. Was it an affirmation that the book has really become obsolete? But the uproar the store’s closure has caused, and the amount of support and feedback the event has received, shows that the literary industry is a fighting and thriving one – one that won’t disappear anytime soon.


To read more about Pages’ closure, check out Pages’ official press release on their website, or its coverage in the Globe and Mail or the Toronto Star.

By Mia Herrera

Toronto’s literary world has been in an uproar since July 10 upon hearing that Pages bookstore, located on the corner of Queen and John, will be closing on their 30th Anniversary due to impossible-to-meet rent increases.

Pages Books is one of the most iconic independent bookstores that’s donated a lot to the Toronto literary scene. Pages has always been more than “just a bookstore”. It has been a cultural meeting place for years and has done a lot to promote the arts in Toronto through organizing literary and artistic events and through their notable “Pages Art Window” – a section of their storefront window “dedicated to displaying the works of local artists”. Pages’ proprietor Marc Glassman was once even charged with obscenity for a feminist art display. Due to an overwhelming display of community support, however, the Criminal Code’s definition of obscenity was overturned. Tidbits like these are just small examples of the impact one cultural centre can have on an entire city.

Six years ago, Glassman also started a program called This Is Not a Reading Series (or TINARS for short). Held in various cultural venues throughout the city, TINARS features authors and performers with new and upcoming work. The only catch: No actual readings are allowed! As a result, Glassman’s series has housed hundreds of unforgettable events, from intense discussions about poetry, hangovers and pot, to music performances, film screenings, sculpture displays, puppetry, acrobatics and dancing. TINARS, which is organized in conjunction with publishers, cultural organizations, and non-profit committees, has become one of Toronto’s more notable gatherings over the past few years – an event where people can truly experience something new and different. Luckily, Glassman will not be ending TINARS just because Pages is closing. In the meantime, however, he will continue searching for a new venue where book selling and cultural events may both occur.

If you would like to experience one last moment in Pages history, be sure to visit the Gladstone Hotel Ballroom at 7:30pm on Tuesday, September 8 for a special TINARS event: Afterword: A Celebration of 30 Years. TINARS will host many of the artists and thinkers whose work has been featured on Pages’ shelves and each will provide a short tribute to Glassman and Pages Books. Tributes will be followed by Canadian Comedy Award winners Monkey Toast, who will perform improvised comedies based on others’ experiences of Pages. If Pages has donated something to your life, the opportunity to have your Pages story preformed by Monkey Toast is still available. A request has been issued for everyone to send in their unique Pages Books story. Send your story over to my.pagesbooks.story@gmail.com by August 24, and maybe we’ll see your story onstage.

Even without following everyday book trends, the precariousness of the book industry is evident just by contemplating today’s society. In a world where the computer rules and information is increasingly transmitted through tech-savvy means, people often wonder whether or not the book as an object is becoming obsolete. After all, what is the point of books when you have e-readers like the Kindle, which stores hundreds of books in one handy gadget? Who has the time or money to spend on a book when you can just download it for free on your iPhone or read it on the Internet? Actually, who has the time to read at all in such a fast-paced world? To be honest, my heart sank upon hearing that Pages Books was closing. Was it an affirmation that the book has really become obsolete? But the uproar the store’s closure has caused, and the amount of support and feedback the event has received, shows that the literary industry is a fighting and thriving one – one that won’t disappear anytime soon.


To read more about Pages’ closure, check out Pages’ official press release on their website, or its coverage in the Globe and Mail or the Toronto Star.

By Mia Herrera

 

Toronto’s literary world has been in an uproar since July 10 upon hearing that Pages bookstore, located on the corner of Queen and John, will be closing on their 30th Anniversary due to impossible-to-meet rent increases.

 

Pages Books is one of the most iconic independent bookstores that’s donated a lot to the Toronto literary scene. Pages has always been more than “just a bookstore”. It has been a cultural meeting place for years and has done a lot to promote the arts in Toronto through organizing literary and artistic events and through their notable “Pages Art Window” – a section of their storefront window “dedicated to displaying the works of local artists”. Pages’ proprietor Marc Glassman was once even charged with obscenity for a feminist art display. Due to an overwhelming display of community support, however, the Criminal Code’s definition of obscenity was overturned. Tidbits like these are just small examples of the impact one cultural centre can have on an entire city.

 

Six years ago, Glassman also started a program called This Is Not a Reading Series (or TINARS for short). Held in various cultural venues throughout the city, TINARS features authors and performers with new and upcoming work. The only catch: No actual readings are allowed! As a result, Glassman’s series has housed hundreds of unforgettable events, from intense discussions about poetry, hangovers and pot, to music performances, film screenings, sculpture displays, puppetry, acrobatics and dancing. TINARS, which is organized in conjunction with publishers, cultural organizations, and non-profit committees, has become one of Toronto’s more notable gatherings over the past few years – an event where people can truly experience something new and different. Luckily, Glassman will not be ending TINARS just because Pages is closing. In the meantime, however, he will continue searching for a new venue where book selling and cultural events may both occur.

If you would like to experience one last moment in Pages history, be sure to visit the Gladstone Hotel Ballroom at 7:30pm on Tuesday, September 8 for a special TINARS event: Afterword: A Celebration of 30 Years. TINARS will host many of the artists and thinkers whose work has been featured on Pages’ shelves and each will provide a short tribute to Glassman and Pages Books. Tributes will be followed by Canadian Comedy Award winners Monkey Toast, who will perform improvised comedies based on others’ experiences of Pages. If Pages has donated something to your life, the opportunity to have your Pages story preformed by Monkey Toast is still available. A request has been issued for everyone to send in their unique Pages Books story. Send your story over to my.pagesbooks.story@gmail.com by August 24, and maybe we’ll see your story onstage.

Even without following everyday book trends, the precariousness of the book industry is evident just by contemplating today’s society. In a world where the computer rules and information is increasingly transmitted through tech-savvy means, people often wonder whether or not the book as an object is becoming obsolete. After all, what is the point of books when you have e-readers like the Kindle, which stores hundreds of books in one handy gadget? Who has the time or money to spend on a book when you can just download it for free on your iPhone or read it on the Internet? Actually, who has the time to read at all in such a fast-paced world? To be honest, my heart sank upon hearing that Pages Books was closing. Was it an affirmation that the book has really become obsolete? But the uproar the store’s closure has caused, and the amount of support and feedback the event has received, shows that the literary industry is a fighting and thriving one – one that won’t disappear anytime soon.


To read more about Pages’ closure, check out Pages’ official press release on their website, or its coverage in the Globe and Mail or the Toronto Star.