With the closing of Galleon Books and Antiques, Sidney’s moniker of Book Town, a concept that had been envisioned and brought to life by Clive and Christine Tanner, has largely faded into the past. It has not, however, died.
But we’ll get back to that.
Galleon Books opened its doors in 2002 and proprietor Rodney Laurie created a shop with the look and feel of a genteel private study. Surrounded by art, antiques and table centrepieces, the store also offered an eclectic collection of books. The titles that lined the shelves included books on First Nations, Canadian history, antiques, and art as well as a collection of hard-to-find books in a host of other categories.
And the reviews for the bookstore were all that Laurie could have wanted.
“I happened upon Galleon Books & Antiques and was so happy that I decided to explore this wonderful shop. It is beautifully laid out and the quality of the merchandise is very impressive. Even better than that was the service we received from Rod Laurie, the owner. He was so much fun to interact with and really understood our needs and how to fulfill them. This place is a must-see in Sidney,” wrote one reviewer.
But despite all that, Galleon Books and Antiques is closing, and its stock is being liquidated by a harried Laurie with prices marked down by 75 per cent.
Laurie declined to explain why his store is closing.
“I can’t deal with that right now. I’m closing, that’s all I’ll say,” said Laurie.
“Bookstore closings are not a new thing,” said William Matthews, owner of The Haunted Bookshop, the last of the small specialty bookstores in Sidney.
“I bought my shop from Odene Long four years ago and I guess it’s the last of the small bookstores in Sidney, now that Galleon has closed,” said Matthews. “It’s a little sad, that the era of those stores seems to have passed. These days bookstores tend to be larger and have gotten into selling things like calendars and other things not related to actual books. I don’t do that.”
In fact, The Haunted Bookshop, which by the way, is not haunted but rather credits its name to a 1919 novel by Christopher Morley by the same name, is the last of the small, quaint bookstores that once characterized Sidney. Tanner’s Books, a larger modern-style bookstore also continues to operate.
But while The Haunted Bookshop won’t offer to sell you any calendars or coffee mugs, it does house an enviable collection of used books.
“I started out as a book scout when I was 17 years old,” said Matthews. "I went all back and forth across North America scouting through big deposits looking for rare books.”
It’s a passion that Matthews, now well beyond his teen years, has never lost.
“We have books going back to the 16th century,” said Matthews. I just bought a book from 1540 in the original pigskin binding. It’s wonderful.”
Part of Matthews’ business model that allows him to continue to operate is the advent of the internet.
“You’re more likely, I’m afraid, to sell those rare books online as artifacts than to have them to read. But with online sales, I can sell books that I might not have been able to sell in the past.”
That’s not to say that The Haunted Bookshop only deals with rare volumes.
“We also specialize in sensational fiction, and I have a big stock of those and that’s pretty unusual,” said Mathews “We also sell a lot of regular fiction, and name-brand authors are doing well, and we have a lot of science fiction as well. Some young people come in to hunt down some of the books that they just can’t find anywhere else, not even in libraries.”
Still, the business model for bookstores has changed.
Alex Matthews, William’s daughter and operational partner at the shop, observed that while The Haunted Bookshop has some of the more arcane titles that are hard to find, the older books don’t command the kind of price you’d expect.
It’s a perilous business model, to be sure, but one that the Matthews love.
“I grew up in homes surrounded by piles of books and in bookstores just like this,” said Alex. “This is a great shop and I’m here pretty much every day. It’s a good place to be.”
So, while the passing of Galleon Books is undoubtedly a loss to Sidney, the fact that The Haunted Bookshop continues does provide some solace to the bibliophiles of Sidney.
The rare books that haunt the shelves of the shop are a constant reminder to people that all those original thoughts that they have aren’t very new at all. And like fine wines, many of those books and the wisdom they contain have only improved with age.
Finally, as a parting thought to folks who haven’t ventured into a great old bookstore for a while, we offer the thoughts of Mark Twain, who famously observed that the man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.
The Haunted Bookshop is located at 9807 Third St. in Sidney.
