Let me say it again, I love books.
I saw a designer on a talk show years ago where they recommended lining up books next to each other from tallest to shortest for a clean, organized look.
So I did it with my cookbooks.
Sometimes I stack my books. Like the bookshelf in the hall that has books both lined up and stacked. Or the bathroom bookshelf. Or the shelf in my closet that houses a collection of notebooks and books I reference more frequently. Or the box of books shoved under the bed because we don't have room for another bookshelf.
Or the every rising stack of books on my bedside table.
I love my books.
Watch this very cleverly creative video posted two days ago from Type Bookstore in Toronto and tell me you don't want to pick up a book. Tell me you don't want to own more books. Tell me you don't want to run out to the store and browse and buy and read more books.
I understand Kobos and Kindles and e-readers. I get the popularity. I see people using them all the time. I was even a runner up in a writing contest last year and had a short story published. In fact, it is only available in electronic format. It was e-published. It was e-xciting.
You can find out more about the contest and download the story, Moving Parts, here.
Still, I love books.
The McClelland & Stewart buyout story, like all stories, has two sides:
The big guy takes over the littler guy in efforts to help them out with financial challenges and issues of dealing with an industry with increasingly more digital assets.
The littler guy now has to report to the big guy, but the plan is that the publishing house will continue to be run in the same manner, by the same people, with minimal changes.
Okay, there are actually three sides. The third side is the bottom side, also known as the line, which we don't know. No financial terms were revealed. We don't know how much the U of T got from Random House.
From all media accounts it is seemingly an amicable move.
The story of the McClelland & Stewart buyout however, is not the story of The Chronicle Herald in Halifax.
The Chronicle Herald remains one of the last independent dailies in Canada. Graham Dennis who served as its owner and publisher for 57 years died at the age of 84 on December 1, 2011. According to his obituary, he was proud of the paper's independence, saying that all offers to buy it were rebuffed, politely but firmly.
The Globe and Mail quoted former Tory MP Bill Casey with saying, "He was genuinely interested in everything that was going on in the province."
Genuine interest.
That's the kicker. I hope, for the sake of books, Canadian books in particular, in the M&S and RHC story, that the big guy takes a genuine interest in the littler guy's efforts, ideas and mandate.
There is reason to believe they will.
In a press release Random House said they have made significant long-term commitments in undertaking this full ownership.
Random House stated they will continue to fund and support the M&S Poetry program, the publication of The Journey Prize stories, and ongoing support for the Writers Trust Journey Prize. They are establishing The McClelland & Stewart Lecture, an annual event to be held at the U of T that will be focused around the advancement of writers and their ideas. They say they will keep the McClelland & Stewart imprint and retain the New Canadian Library, Emblem Editions and Signal imprints.
Here's hoping.
PS: I had lunch today with the fine folks from The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. We talked about books. And we talked about the upcoming event on March 5th where this year's winner will be announced. We also talked about animals and food and travel and family.
But we were there because of books.
