Jul. 31st, 2010 03:17 pm
Excursus: Les libraires de Montreal
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muckefuckBooks are not cheap here. At the Berri-UQAM station, we stopped in to Le Parchemin and I asked about a book for my nephews. They didn't have it, so the clerk was kind enough to print out a page with the ISBN etc. so I could ask at the next shop. "Just so you know, it will be about $44." And it's not even a pop-up book!
Two things in particular I've been searching for since I arrived: a decent volume of Quebecois short stories and a couple of pornographic comics from a French-Canadian author. In the first case, I fell afoul of a Romance false friend and requested anthologies de contes until yesterday when the very helpful woman at Mona lisait in the Quartier Latin clarified that I really wanted nouvelles. Tricky! She sold me what looks to be a decent compilation called Montreal en prose: 1892-1992.
But that was cake compared to tracking down the comics. I've now been to every bookstore in the Village save one asking for "bédés érotiques gaies"; naturally, the only place with a decent selection was one block from where we're staying. So overjoyed was I to find the titles I sought, I gave them only a cursory glance before buying; thus, I was home before I saw they were in English.
If I'd wanted the English versions, I could've mail-ordered them two years ago right after I found out they existed. But I want my smut to be educational. I discovered last year that the French firm which publishes them won't ship to the USA, so I resigned myself to hunting for them here. But due to some quirk of customs, the French versions can't even be shipped to Quebec. Remember: they were written by a French Canadian. The whole state of affairs just makes my head hurt!
Two things in particular I've been searching for since I arrived: a decent volume of Quebecois short stories and a couple of pornographic comics from a French-Canadian author. In the first case, I fell afoul of a Romance false friend and requested anthologies de contes until yesterday when the very helpful woman at Mona lisait in the Quartier Latin clarified that I really wanted nouvelles. Tricky! She sold me what looks to be a decent compilation called Montreal en prose: 1892-1992.
But that was cake compared to tracking down the comics. I've now been to every bookstore in the Village save one asking for "bédés érotiques gaies"; naturally, the only place with a decent selection was one block from where we're staying. So overjoyed was I to find the titles I sought, I gave them only a cursory glance before buying; thus, I was home before I saw they were in English.
If I'd wanted the English versions, I could've mail-ordered them two years ago right after I found out they existed. But I want my smut to be educational. I discovered last year that the French firm which publishes them won't ship to the USA, so I resigned myself to hunting for them here. But due to some quirk of customs, the French versions can't even be shipped to Quebec. Remember: they were written by a French Canadian. The whole state of affairs just makes my head hurt!