JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Book plates are little devices created especially for you; embodying your individual tastes or coat of arms. One pasted inside the front of your book not only ornaments the volume, but to the borrower with a defective memory, is a constant reminder of your ownership. - artist C. Valentine Kirby, 1911.  Sometimes, when browsing used books, you'll find a decoratively illustrated imprint or sticker indicating whose library the title once belonged too. It tells you a little about its former owner, who either cared enough to individually mark their books with illustrations that reflected their personal style, such as a sense of humour or a flair for the romantic, a tribute to family history, or betray an inflated ego. Inspired by an exhibit in Salem, Massachusetts, The Buffalo Sunday News placed a spotlight on book plates in its October 29, 1911 edition, focusing on the work and thoughts of artist  Clarence Valentine Kirby (1875-1947). In the years following this piece, Kirby ser...

This weekend, I had to buy a new computer. The old one had performed well given how heavily I use, but either old age or an inability to get along with recent Windows Updates meant increasing wildcat strikes by my mouse and keyboard. Setting up the new system was easy, and has provided an excuse to sort files. Among the folders I found was one filled with snapshots from late 1970s editions of Books in Canada , taken while working on other projects during some long-ago trip to Toronto Reference Library.  The first image jumped out at me. Books in Canada, August-September 1977. NIGHTMARE FUEL!!!  Kind of reminds me of that part of the opening sequence for the old Elwy Yost series Magic Shadows where the fighter pilot turns into a tiger man. Or the dude who physically modified himself into a catman . Or something Dr. Moreau genetically whipped up.  Shedding some colour on this doesn't make this cover any less creepy. Let's take a closer look at the ad...   Books...

It’s not so much that the former World’s Biggest Bookstore is being knocked down that bugs me. Nor that the site may become a parking lot (Toronto’s favourite temporary solution to demolitions during the 1960s/70s) while the property’s owner abandons plans for a “ restaurant row ” in favour of a rezoning application. No, it’s the fact that Indigo didn’t remove the store’s shelving before the wrecking ball made its first punch. 

The cover caught my eye as it sat in a bin at Goodwill Buy the Pound in Scarborough: a large, blonde-haired bully about to give the beats to a bespectacled pencil-neck geek whose dog is afraid of what might unfold. There was something familiar about the bully, though it took a second to kick in. Sweet jeezus, it's Rob Ford! Flipping through the book, the resemblance grew with each page. I figured it was worth making a fifty-cent investment, since who knew when it might come in handy for a mayoral fiasco. That opportunity is now. Wednesday night, there was a confrontation next to Ford's home between the mayor and Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale . Details are still emerging, but Ford's actions toward the media in the wake of the incident (such as refusing to talk to any City Hall reporters unless Dale is removed from the beat) reinforce his image as a bully to those who don't support him. Which brings us back to Let's Talk About Being Bullied . Let's ...

One series of paperbacks I've picked up at fundraising book sales over the years is Penguin's food handbooks.  Small, rarely more than 50 cents a copy, and ranging in subjects from haute cuisine to proper freezing techniques, they're food guides designed for reading instead of gawking. Aimed at a British audience, there are occasional nods to North America, such as a brief look at our fermented grape industry in Allan Sichel's 1965 guide The Penguin Book of Wines .

No illustrations to accompany today's first batch of recipes. Though stroganoff has many elements I like in a dish (saucy beef, mushrooms, a bed of egg noodles), it's never been a dish that's tempted me to order it in a restaurant or make it on my own. Possible reasons: 1) One of my favourite dishes as a kind was Mom's sauerbraten (aka "steak and noodles"), which is a distant cousin. Main differences: instead of mushrooms and sour cream, brown sugar and worcestershire sauce were key ingredients. 2) Any Noodle Roni/ Lipton Noodles & Sauce sidedish marketed as stroganoff tended to be crappy (Romanoff noodles on the other hand...). 3) Seeing students down mass quantities of stroganoff at Creelman Hall during my university daze. Blue cheese dressing? Back in the early 1980s, Malibu's Le Grand Cochon restaurant served up a tasty, extra-creamy version...and plenty of it! Sample some chocolate cake prepared by the chefs of Crowded House. ...

One of the highlights of going to the Elora Festival's book sale every spring is surfing through the tables of formerly-loved (or never-used-despite-all-good-intentions) cookbooks. For as little as a quarter, dedicated browsers will find flip past every Better Homes & Gardens cooking guide ever published to find recipe books ranging from local women's institutes to collections of Len Deighton's swingin' Sixties cookstrips . It was at one Elora sale that I discovered Betty Crocker's vision of the diet a North American male should enjoy, complete with the cutesy illustration style beloved of book designers and board game makers circa 1970. It's interesting to contrast the cartoony style used by artist Murray Tinkelman in this book and the work he has done for clients like the New York Times . We'll keep the table of contents under wraps, so that every dish comes as a surprise (this series needs an element of suspense to keep readers coming ba...

If you aren't up to braving the masses at the Santa Claus Parade this coming Sunday, you can head down to the Gladstone Hotel to check out the launch of the latest collection of essays about Toronto from Coach House Books, The Edible City . I contributed one of the essays, parts of which may not come as a big surprise if you've read some of the pieces I've published on the web over the years. Hopefully readers won't find the piece to be half-baked. - JB

With the Christmas shopping season underway, why not consider some literary picks from half-a-century ago for those on your gift list? This selection of books even fills CanCon rules, thanks to the selections from two Canuck literary titans. While researching a recent Historicist column , I stumbled upon reviews for both of these books while browsing microfilms of The Telegram . It appears that portions of The Desperate People were serialized earlier that year in the paper, so those with long memories may have remembered Farley Mowat's look at Inuit life by the time Laurie McKechnie reviewed it: Surely Farley Mowat’s book will stir the conscience, rouse the indignation of Canadians in much the same way the UNCLE TOM’S CABIN aroused America a century ago ...Mowat’s book is NOT fiction. It is tragic truth. It is a magnificent documentary—the story of a race of primitive people carefully constructed by focusing upon the facts of one fragment of their society. And through it ...

I like it when the library surprises me. Yes, I could look for books in the catalogue, but there's something to be said for the thrill of the hunt, for hitting the stacks with a vague notion of what you're looking for and being amused or amazed by what you find in different branches. Recently, I stumbled upon found a 1970 textbook about our region, Graham Lamont's Toronto and York County: A Sample Study . It appears to be a textbook aimed at upper elementary or high school students. It includes many period pictures of the city, including this one of Bloor east of Avenue, just as high-rise building was kicking in. Tell-tale sign this is a textbook? The margins are full of questions to ponder. Several don't have answers any clearer than they were nearly 40 years ago(i.e., "what in your opinion is the best use for this waterfront land?"). Here are a dozen for you to answer. You choose whether to answer from a modern standpoint or with 1970 blinkers o...