I'm a secondhand and rare internet bookseller in Aurora, Ontario, Canada. While I carry a general stock covering most topics, you'll find a strong bias towards books on aviation, horses, motorsports, Canadian history, and military history.
This reflects my personal interests (as with most rare booksellers' specialties), and if such a motley selection seems curious to you, well... My parents were both Can-Am drivers for Team Renault in the 1960s, my mother was a bush pilot up until a couple of years ago, and I've had horses all my life.
I have a daughter in her first year of university. Carleen is bright, noisy, brave, outgoing, and very dramatic. Quite the opposite of her mother. My partner, David, is a woodworker (handy for all that shelf-building!). He's very patient, and endures my endless projects with good cheer. Luckily he likes to read, and is constantly pilfering my inventory, otherwise I'm sure he couldn't stand living with boxes of books moving in and out of the living room (and every other room of the house). Cardboard decor, very chic :-)
I also have two cats, Yeti and Taz. Yeti is movie star beautiful and a fierce mouser. He's almost 18 pounds, with feet like a small bear. Taz is tiny and round, and seriously hyperactive. Even when he sleeps his tail twists and flickers constantly. They enjoy a good game of thunder cats (tumbling, rolling, and flinging themselves at each other, the furniture, the walls, etc with great glee) quite regularly in the middle of the night. The cats are actually very fond of the cardboard decor. In fact they spend a lot of time popping in and out of empty boxes.
The two horses are getting pretty old, and aren't ridden much anymore. However, Tango was in a movie that had some scenes filmed here on the farm last summer (a B movie in Chinese... not exactly the big time). It was just a small part, but he was very well behaved - if a bit puzzled by all the people scurrying about with cameras. He was quite flattered that the lovely Chinese actress who starred in the film was truly enamoured and kissed him on the nose repeatedly. I believe he actually fluttered his eyelashes once or twice.
I began selling books in 1987 in an open shop in Newmarket, Ontario called Starlight Books. The store did very well, and I sold it late in 1992. It's still open and thriving under its new owners.
Since then I've sold books by internet and mail order only on my own site at http://www.ramsaybooks.com, as well as on ABE, Bibliofind, and other sites. It suits me perfectly, as I actually enjoy my computer almost as much as my books. I now design and host websites for other booksellers, as well as volunteering as the site administrator for the IOBA, and running Littera Scripta. I run several mailing lists - BooksCanada being the largest with about 350 members.
Sometimes I miss meeting and chatting with my customers face to face. However, there are compensations - on my wall is a world map with red flags on every country that I've had a customer. It's amazing how many places are flagged - Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Belgium, England, Singapore, Israel, France, Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Lebanon, Argentina, Japan, Croatia, Brazil, etc. And that's just a start. I meet people from around the world every day...
Some of my favorite books:
- Mowat, Farley. Grey Seas Under. Non-fiction. Miscellany of events taken from the logs of an ocean-going salvage tug based in Halifax, NS.
- Huffaker, Clair. The Cowboy and the Cossack. A western that transcends the genre. About a cattle drive across Siberia in the late 1800s.
- Shute, Nevil. Trustee From the Toolroom. A tiny perfect story of a little gray man who does the impossible.
- Shute, Nevil. Pied Piper. WWII novel of an old man who walks across France at the beginning of the war accidentally rescuing children.
- Gallico, Paul. The Snow Goose. Short but lovely British novel of a snow goose, and the small boat owners who performed miracle rescues at Dunkirk.
- Yeats, William Butler. poems. Not much I can say about him except that he was the best.
- Zelazny, Roger. The Amber Chronicles. Fabulous, vividly visual fantasy series. The first five are the best.
- Smith, Linnell. ... And Miles to Go: The Biography of a Great Arabian Horse, Witez II. Non-fiction. Story of an Arabian horse born in Poland just before WWII. He was rescued by grooms who led him back and forth across Poland on foot during the German invasion. He went on to become a champion sire in the US in his old age.
- Davies, Robertson. Leaven of Malice. It's a gem.
- Van Herk, Aritha. The Tent-Peg. Strange but fascinating novel set in the Canadian arctic.
- King, Laurie R. The Beekeeper's Apprentice. A brilliant and irascible young woman runs into Sherlock Holmes after his retirement.
- Laurence, Margaret. The Diviners. Perhaps I like it because it reminds me so much of my own prairie childhood...
- Perry, Thomas. Metzger's Dog. A very quirky caper novel. Perry's books are all good.
- Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure. It's dark and dreary and rather horrible. But also one of the most powerful novels I've ever read.
- Tey, Josephine. Brat Farrar. A lovely little British murder mystery in the classic style.
- Du Bois, William Pene. Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead. Okay, maybe it's not a favorite now. But I loved it when I was six.
- Appleton, Victor. Tom Swift series. Another childhood favorite.
- Goerner, Fred. The Search for Amelia Earhart. I don't know if it was actually good - but it was the first adult book I ever read. I was seven. I'm not sure how much I understood, but I could tell she was dashing (kinda like my Mom).
- King, Thomas. Medicine River. And if you can't find his books, just listen to him on CBC Radio in "The Dead Dog Cafe". It's wonderful.
- MacGill-Eain, Somhairle (MacLean, Sorley). Reothairt is Contraigh Taghadh de Dhain 1932-72 (Spring tide and Neap tide: Selected Poems 1932-72) My Gaelic is pretty bad, but this collection has facing page translations by the author. And they are lovely poems in either language.
- Cope, Wendy. Serious Concerns. More poetry. Goofy, but brilliantly pointed. And very funny.
Mom's office. About 1980 - likely at Churchill, Manitoba
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J.D. on the left is a Thoroughbred (he's now 23 years old). Tango, on the right is an Oldenburg (aka German Warmblood). He's 17.1 hh, or about 69 inches at the top of his shoulder.
