Bookstores
Folks in the Tokyo Linux Users Group are talking about where to find English-version O'Reilly books. Seeing familiar names flash by—Kinokuniya, Yurindo, even Book 1st—I suddenly miss Japan and that fellowship between strangers browsing through the tiny English section of bookstores... Now I know that I didn't just pass through. I wasn't just a tourist. Even if it was just for six months, I really did live there.
Canada still feels a little unreal to me. Sometimes I have a hard time believing that I'm really halfway around the world. The chain bookstores are comfortably familiar: books, a cafe, shelves of music and video. When I step into Chapters, it's like stepping into Powerbooks or Fully Booked in Metro Manila—I'm home.
But when I step into one of those little bookstores, then I know I really am a stranger in a strange land. They have specialized bookstores here. Science fiction and fantasy. New age and spiritualism. Used and rare books.
It's hard to care about megabookstores; they're the same the world over. But someday I'll grow to be as fond of these little bookstores as I am of the bookstores in Japan, and then I'll know I'm not just passing through Canada; I live here, even just for a while.
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