Book City set to celebrate its 50th anniversary this week

By JESSICA SHACKLETON

Iconic Toronto store Book City is marking 50 years of independent bookselling.

The first location was opened in 1976 at 501 Bloor St. W. in the Annex. At various times, there have been as many as 10 Book City stores across Toronto.

Now there are four neighbourhood stores on Danforth, Yonge and St. Clair, Bloor West Village, and the Beach.

The location in the Beach is the largest store and is located at 1950 Queen St. E. It opened in 1996 and is celebrating 30 years.
Book City was founded by Frans and Gini Donker, who emigrated to Canada from the Netherlands. Today, it remains a family-owned and operated business.

When the original 501 Bloor West store closed in 2014, Frans Donker retired, and their son Ian Donker took over.
Donker was two years old when the first store was opened.

“My earliest memories of the bookstores were sitting in the Annex kids section when I could, reading books. It was a nice way to grow up, that’s for sure,” he said.

Being such an iconic, longstanding institution, Book City has loyalists.

“We were lucky to have long-term staff members, especially at the Annex. We had a few familiar faces for 30-plus years in some cases, and the store felt like a second home,” he said.

“I’ve managed or worked at pretty much every location that was ever opened, and it’s amazing how many customers I knew from one location, and if that location closed, I’d still see them at another location shopping,” he said. “We’ve been really lucky with customers who, in some cases, have followed us from store to store, whichever is the most convenient to them.”

He said it’s a great feeling to have long-time staff and customers in the store regularly.

Donker’s daily life running the business isn’t opening the shop, selling books all day, and then closing up. Instead, he spends his days putting out any fires there might be.

“These days, less than 50 per cent of my day involves books. Most of the day, it’s running around with my head chopped off. If I’m not in the warehouse, I’m in the car driving around; if I’m not in the car, I’m talking to a trades guy, fixing something in one of the buildings, or I’m shopping for whatever supplies we might need,” he said. “It’s not exactly the most glamorous job these days, but I still love it.”

He started working in the stores and the warehouse as a teenager and went to the United Kingdom to apprentice as a bookseller in 1997. Since 2000, he has been helping run the stores.

Independent bookstores have always been an important part of communities. Within the past decade, as publishing has changed, they have become even more vital.

“Your independent retailer, whether it’s books or booksellers or any of your local shops, we’re very dependent on the neighbourhoods we’re in, and Toronto is really a great city to be independent in because the neighbourhoods of Toronto really value their shopping streets,” he said.

“We employ local people, and we try very hard to represent Canadian authors and Canadian publishers whether they’re big or small. It’s vital for communities to both have and support local Canadian businesses.”

The “Big Five” publishers are Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan, and they all have Canadian branches and imprints.

However, there are many smaller Canadian-specific publishers that rely on indie bookstores to get their work out.

“There’s an ever-shrinking number of Canadian publishers out there, and they need to be represented, and I think the indies are particularly well placed to represent those Canadian voices that might get swallowed up in a massive megastore,” said Donker. “We do have local authors coming in and because we have a personal relationship with them, those books are on our shelves, and our staff know they’re there.”

That personal connection can easily be lost in bigger stores. The one time that Donker can be found on the floor of the store selling books is at Christmas. He always enjoys seeing people find the perfect gift, like a signed copy or special edition.

There are some other perks to shopping locally. For example, whenever Canadian author Carley Fortune releases a new book, signed editions are only sold at indie bookstores.

Book City is stocked with all the biggest books both in-store and online and takes pre-orders for anticipated titles.

Donker couldn’t pick just one favourite book of all time, but he said Last of the Curlews (written by former Beacher Fred Bodsworth and published in 1955) has stuck with him throughout the years.

Whatever your favourite is, Book City probably has a copy of it waiting for you.

“Book City has survived on the strength of the books we sell, the staff that we have, and the loyalty of our customers. It’s been a pretty great 50 years, even though there have been some ups and downs over the life cycle of the store; it’s been a pretty great place to grow up in and work,” said Donker.

To celebrate the milestone, Book City is holding a week of festivities starting today (Tuesday, Sept. 8).

There will be in-store specials and a Customer Appreciation Day on Sept. 12 to thank the readers, authors, publishers, and communities who have made the anniversary possible. Festivities will be happening at all four locations.

For more information about Book City and to shop for books, please visit https://bookcity.ca/