zirconium: of blue bicycle in front of Blue Bicycle Books, Charleston (blue bicycle)
zirconium ([personal profile] zirconium) wrote2013-09-23 10:10 am
Entry tags:

the Paper Hound (and some other things seen in Vancouver so far)

The BYM and I walked around a fair bit of downtown Vancouver yesterday. Our stops included:

  • JJ Bean: terrific chocolate croissants; a Happy Planet "Extreme Planet" juice -- I find the smiley face on the cap somewhat unnerving, but the beverage itself was fine, and it's kind of cool seeing bilingual labels everywhere); Sunday tabloids spread across the front bar; fun people-watching/story-concocting (the range included a couple of exceptionally tall, nerdish chaps; a middle-aged Asian social worker; fashionable executives (the latter African Canadian); hipsters; painters; a meter man; lots of students; an older man in shapeless shorts that were probably older than anyone currently playing for the Grizzlies; a young woman stalking by with a quart of milk; and at least two poodles with vests)


  • the Moon Festival at the Sun Yat-sen Garden. It was a low-key affair. I especially enjoyed the koi feeding, which involved a large gong and included a huge, orange 47-year-old fish named Madonna.


  • noshing and sipping at New Town (fried radish cake, oh YES), Bambo's, The Shop Vancouver, and Marutama


  • glimpses from the March for Reconciliation: a hip-hop choir; feathered cloaks and chaps; an orca mask; a sea of umbrellas

  • poking around The Paper Hound, a bookshop on Pender. Here's my sweetie in front of the science shelves:

    Paper Hound Bookshop


    As one enters the store, one of the first things at hand is a poetry vending machine...
    Paper Hound Bookshop

    ...and a medicine cabinet containing To Kill a Mockingbird, a Lenny Bruce parody of Dale Carnegie, and other classics:

    Paper Hound Bookshop

    Next to that, there are a trio of card racks stuffed with letters, bookmarks, bookplates, and other ephemera, with this explanation:

    Paper Hound Bookshop

    I was charmed by the signage elsewhere in the shop...

    Paper Hound Bookshop
    Paper Hound Bookshop

    ... as well as the clever displays. One grouping: a thick tome on lab instruments, a treatise on magic, a history of cryptography, and a collection of William Blake engravings. Just considering how all these are related delights me:

    Paper Hound Bookshop

    Nearby, on the floor, there was a stack of sheet music:

    Paper Hound Bookshop

    And there were contemporary publications for sale as well:

    Paper Hound Bookshop

    I was tempted both by the graphic novel of Blue Is the Warmest Color and a guide to Vancouver architecture (but what I ended up splurging on was a translation of Louis Aragon's Treatise on Style. I also saw a French edition of Cheryl Strayed's Wild. The BYM picked up a signed copy of Chuck Palahniuk's Pygmy.

    One more paper hound:

    Paper Hound Bookshop


  • Post a comment in response:

    If you don't have an account you can create one now.
    HTML doesn't work in the subject.
    More info about formatting

    If you are unable to use this captcha for any reason, please contact us by email at support@dreamwidth.org