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Afterword: A celebration of 30 years of Pages Books

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As Torontonians we are sad about the closing of Pages Books on Queen Street just as so many others are — but as indie-magazine makers, we’re worried. Pages was a huge factor in our success and responsible for so many sales that kept this operation afloat over the last six years. Like other bookstores around town like This Ain’t The Rosedale Library it became a community centre, a site of cultural exchange and saw no mean amount of significant-other-meeting take place over the book tables. To celebrate these 30 years (nearly to the day) we, along with Coach House Books, The Gladstone Hotel, NOW Magazine, and Take Five On CIUT, are holding a wake next week. It’s free, should be more fun than sorrow and we hope you’ll come.

WHEN: Tuesday, September 8 at 7:30pm

WHERE: Gladstone Hotel 1214 Queen West

HOW MUCH: Free!

RSVP: Facebook event page

AFTERWORD: A CELEBRATION OF 30 YEARS

For the past thirty years, Pages Books & Magazines has been a place where the culturally engaged citizens of Toronto met one another, conspired, fell in love, debated aesthetics and, occasionally, bought books. Skyrocketing rent, not a drop in sales, has forced Proprietor Marc Glassman to close the celebrated bookstore at Queen and John streets on August 31. To mark this occassion, many of the artists and thinkers whose work has graced Pages’ shelves over the past three decades will deliver short tributes to Glassman and his iconic indie institution, at “Afterword: A Celebration of 30 Years”.

Come, raise a glass with such notable friends of Pages as Rob Bowman, Eldon Garnet, Greg Gatenby, Laurence Hill, Mike Hoolboom, Mark Kingwell, Barbara Klunder, Andy Paterson, Seth and Alana Wilcox — to name but a few. Canadian Comedy Award winners Monkey Toast will perform improvised comedy based on your stories about Pages. The evening will be structured like a virtual tour of the store, and conclude where it all began thirty years ago: Glassman’s office. Veteran actor Jack Blum will host the evening. — A This Is Not A Reading Series event presented by Coach House Books, Spacing Magazine, Gladstone Hotel, NOW Magazine, and Take Five On CIUT.

Photo by Janet Bike Girl.

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8 comments

  1. I always bought my copies of Spacing at Pages, because it gave me an excuse to browse the shelves and pick up a book or two besides.

    Now that Pages is gone, I’ve taken out a subscription to the magazine. Between Ballenford, Mirvish and now Pages closing, all within a year and a half, I don’t know where I’m going to be able to go for my new book fix. I hope I can make it out to the wake next week.

  2. It was while browsing at Pages that I first happened across Spacing magazine. I’ll certainly keep getting each new issue, but, like Andrew, I’ll miss the trip to Pages to get it.

  3. Pages Books and Magazines was a special gift to Toronto. Marc Glassman is a multi-talented individual, and I know he will continue to do everything he can to make Toronto a great place to live. I look forward to the future of Marc Glassman !

    Thanks Janet

  4. This is a very significant loss. The economics of commercial renting no longer seem to be working in the inner city.

  5. samg,

    Wait till the cap is removed on commercial taxes. Areas like Kensington will be a wasteland.

  6. I loved Pages in Toronto but happy that Pages still exists in Kensington in Calgary!

  7. Glen, if you think a store like Pages would survive in Mississauga, you’re optimistic. There are more considerations to running a business than taxes.

  8. Paul, I did not posit that Pages was a type of store suited for Mississauga. Merely that sky high rents, of which taxes can represent 50%, are going to limit the types of stores that can afford to pay it.

    The Dukes post on my blog gives a good example of this. Dukes would not be able to justify returning to their old premises with the new tax rate.
    http://southofsteeles.blogspot.com/2008/04/death-by-fire-then-death-by-taxes.html

    Recently I was looking at some property listings and again it shows some worrying figures. For example 756 Queen St. West. Currently taxes are $7900 per year. Uncapped they would be about $38,462. That is $2,500 more per month in taxes. Go ask the current tenant if they are able to absorb that. As the cap protection wears off on older properties across the city they will become all but unaffordable for most tenants. Kensignton, with some of the oldest assessments, we need to become like Queen @ Peter (an outdoor mall) with big name tenants to survive.