Mabel's Fables, Toronto

Mabel's Fables is a children's book store in Toronto and is probably my favourite bookshop in the GTA. Located in Mount Pleasant, Mabel's sells books for children of all ages, as well as books for teens and even popular books for adults. The displays are always brilliant, the staff is knowledgable and friendly and there's a bookstore cat! You can see the feline Mabel in the window.

If I were to describe this shop in a word it would probably be cosy. Opened in 1988, Mabel's Fable's will surely be around for years to come. You can visit the shop's official site here. 

Little Free Library, Toronto

A month or so ago I read this article in the Toronto Star about a Little Free Library in the Beaches. These Little Libraries have been sweeping the internet lately, and the idea began in Hudson, Wiscousin. The first Little Library was built in memory of school teacher June A. Bol, and the idea soon caught on. These libraries rely on the honour system, and ask you to leave a book and take another.

The project began in 2009 and there are now Little Free Libraries throughout the United States (with the most in Wisconsin), and in Canada, Germany, Ghana and the U.K. Anyone can have their own Little Library, either by purchasing one online, or by making your own. You can read more about the project (and find out if there's a library near you) here. 

The Little Library in Toronto was created by Bill Wrigley and is modelled after the nearby Beaches Public Library. It is the first Little Library in Toronto and you can find it on Lee Avenue. Unfortunately, my pictures didn't capture how beautiful this Little Library really is. It holds approximately two dozen books. I exchanged my copy of Around the World in 80 Days for Girl in Days for Lost in Translation by Jean Kwok. 

Runnymede Chapters, Toronto

The majority of the books I buy are from Chapters, which is a chain of bookstores in Canada. While these stores are big and spacious, they are all essentially the same and not very interesting after you've been to one. The Runnymede Chapters is the only exception I know about. Located on Bloor St. West, the bookstore was originally a theatre that opened in the 1920's. 

The theatre shut down in 1999 and eventually became a Chapters. Fortunately, the theatre was restored and it has become one of the prettiest bookstores I've ever been to. A few of the old theatre style seats are scattered throughout the store for shoppers. This was a bit out of the way for me, but it was worth going over to the West End just to check out this exceptionally pretty bookstore. 

Review: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour

Title: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour (Scott Pilgrim #6)
Author: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Publisher: Oni Press
Publication Date: July 20th, 2010
Genre: YA, Graphic Novel

It’s been four months since Ramona left Scott, and all he’s done since then is play video games and sleep all day. As Scott tries to move on and get over Ramona, he learns that Gideon, the man behind the league of evil exes, is in Toronto. Even though Scott and Ramona aren’t technically together anymore, Scott might still have to fight Gideon. Who exactly is Gideon and why did he create the league? And what happened to Ramona? As Scott makes amends with his other ex-girlfriends, it seems that there are things he’s just forgotten. How could that be? Ever since Scott first started Ramona, everything has been building up to the moment Scott fights Gideon. Gideon is the mastermind behind all the evil exes, and defeating him will be the biggest test Scott has yet to face. Will he rise up to the challenge, or could this be game over for Scott Pilgrim?

When I was in grade twelve the word ‘epic’ was very popular. I mean, nearly everyone who signed my yearbook wrote something like ‘These last four years were epic’ or ‘Next year’s going to be epic,’ or ‘Remember that project you did on Oedipus? That was epic.’ Since then, I’ve kind of been hesitant to use the word. It’s used too often, even in times when it’s not applicable. For example, high school was not epic. Now was my project on Oedipus. But Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour is worthy of the word. As the book begins, Scott is doing nothing with his life and moping over Ramona. As he tries to move on by looking for a casual hook-up, he decides that he has to fight for Ramona to earn her back. Thus begins the best fight in the series. The whole fight takes place in Toronto’s new Chaos Theatre (care of Gideon,) although there are different stages to the fight. A lot of answers are revealed about mysteries in the series. As a side note, my copy from the library was stabbed with pencils and had about a dozen pages torn out. I feel like I missed some important things, which was a bummer. I’m pretty sure this was not the volume to miss parts of, but I managed to piece things together with some help from Wikipedia.

The best thing about the book (aside from the final battle) was seeing how some of the characters have grown so much over the past six books. Mainly Knives, who is now 18 and shows more wisdom than Scott. Kim Pine, who has been my favourite from the beginning, is brilliant in this book. She sums up one of the themes of the novel: you can’t simply forget about your mistakes and the things that have hurt you, because how will you ever grow? Ramona has also grown a lot and apologizes for ditching Scott. I would have liked Scott to apologize to Knives, since she was the person he hurt the most. Just dating her in the first place was wrong; it was kind of like he was using her just to have something simple and easy. And of course she was the one who ended up getting hurt. I hope she goes to UBC and forgets all about him. In the past five reviews, I don’t think I’ve touched much on Scott. He’s the hero, but he’s also lazy and self absorbed. He hurt Knives and Kim and he takes advantage of Wallace. While he was very flawed, I still thought he was an overall loveable guy who just needs to grow up. I think that having a guy like Scott as the main character worked well for this series. His cluelessness provided a lot of comic relief and I can’t really imagine Scott being any other way.

Now that I’ve finished the series, I thought it would be a good time to talk about the movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. This movie was my first introduction to the series, and after I finished volume six I re-watched the movie. Is it possible that it’s even better now that I’ve read all the books? The casting was spot on, especially for Kim, Knives, Envy and Julie. I’ve mentioned this before, but I prefer Ramona in the books. This isn’t due to the actress; it’s just that I never got the impression in the film that Ramona really liked Scott. She was too aloof. The movie didn’t quite capture how truly evil Gideon is. Scott Pilgrim Vs the World is an adaptation of all six of the Scott Pilgrim books. While it follows volume one very closely, the other volumes are obviously condensed. The series takes place over a year, while the movie occurs in a few weeks. Things are simplified, but probably for the better. What works in a book doesn’t necessarily work in a movie. I think some of the things they left out would have been confusing in the film, or just outright outrageous. For example, the cryogenically frozen girlfriends would have looked ridiculous in the film. I’ve heard this movie called a ‘hipster film,’ and to be honest, I don’t really know what that means. I think of it as more of a film for nerds. While I loved this movie, it’s not for everyone. I saw it with some friends, and they all thought it was the worst movie they had ever seen. And I saw it again with my brother and his girlfriend, and she fell asleep. I went to see this movie because it takes place in Toronto and Metric did some of the music, but I fell in love with this movie, despite its weirdness. Maybe I’m biased since I saw the movie first, but I thought it was an excellent adaptation.

The final volume of the Scott Pilgrim series was everything I hoped for. It was exciting, funny and full of action and character development. Artistically, this is the best book in the series. Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour is everything that is awesome and nerdy in this world. It truly is an epic of epicness.

5/5

“I feel like I’m in this river just getting swept along... And if I hold on to anyone, if I'm holding on for dear life, I'm not getting anywhere. I'm stuck...I never wanted to get stuck.”

Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs The Universe

Title: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe (Scott Pilgrim #5)

Author: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Publisher: Oni Press
Publication Date: February 18th, 2009
Genre: YA, Graphic Novel

It’s Scott’s birthday and before he blows out the candles he vows to be the best 24 year-old ever. But things are just as difficult as when he was twenty-three. Scott has to defeat the twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi, two of Ramona’s evil exes. While fighting two people at once is difficult as it is, Scott has to get past the twins’ fighting robots before he can even fight them. Although Scott won’t stop fighting for her, things with Ramona are difficult as well. Scott and Ramona both find out about the other’s wrong doings in the past, which causes problems in their relationship. Not to mention Scott finds out that she doesn’t even like his band Sex Bob-Omb. While Ramona being mysterious was one of the things Scott initially liked about her, he learns about the downside to all that mystery. Things might be difficult now, but Scott will just defeat the twins and Gideon and everything will be perfect. Won’t it?

This is the penultimate book in the series and has a much darker tone than the previous books. This book was mainly building up to the final volume, and it definitely left me wanting to read the next (and last) book in the series. Of course, at the same time I don’t want to read it, since I don’t want this series to end! Once again this book starts off with a short recap explaining the different characters and their connection with one another. I like the artwork in the first pages a lot: the first page shows a picture of Ramona walking in the fall, and the next two pages show the title with a dragon around it. Overall, artistically I liked this book the most. Unlike the previous books in the series, Scott Pilgrim Vs The Universe wasn’t all that funny. This volume is more focused on character development, as well as Scott and Ramona slowly coming to terms with their pasts. Both Scott and Ramona have done bad things in the past and are trying to change for the better. But is that really possible? The cliffhanger ending worked well and I loved all the build up to the grand finale of the series. This book had a different mood than the previous books, and that was one of the things I liked. While it is definitely dark, I thought that was fitting for the second to last book in this series. While it is different from the first four Scott Pilgrim books, I enjoyed this one and I think it did a good job of setting things up for Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour.

4/5

“Maybe next time let’s not date the girl with eleven evil ex-boyfriends, okay?”

Review: Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness

Title: Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness (Scott Pilgrim #3)

Author: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Publisher: Oni Press
Publication Date: March 24th, 2006
Genre: YA, Graphic Novel

Things only seem to be getting worst for our hero Scott Pilgrim. His ex-girlfriend Envy Adams is back in Toronto with her new boyfriend, Todd. Todd also happens to be Ramona’s ex-boyfriend and, even worst, is vegan. Everyone knows that being vegan makes you better than other people and gives you psychic powers, and how will Scott be able to match that? All her wants is some closure with Envy, but instead he has to defeat her boyfriend if he wants to be with Ramona.

Isn’t Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness the best title ever? Nothing seems to be going right as the third volume in the series begins. Things are especially dramatic for Scott, with four girls he at one time dated in the picture at the moment (Kim, Envy, Knives and Ramona.) This book was easier to follow than the second in the series, although at the beginning I had difficult distinguishing between a few of the characters. The diagram at the beginning of all the characters and their relationships helped me keep track (and made me laugh.) The Infinite Sadness was entertaining and often laugh-out-loud funny. We see some flashbacks to Scott’s first year of university, when he started dating Envy Adams, who eventually broke his heart. As Scott is struggling with the fact that he’s still broken hearted over Envy, he also has to fight her boyfriend Todd, who has super powers. While their first fight begins at Lee Palace, it continues through the novel, including a battle at Honest Ed’s. While the second and third volumes can’t match the first, it was still a lot of fun to read. I’d definitely recommend this to any reluctant readers, since this is a quick and amusing read.

4/5

Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Title: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Scott Pilgrim #2)

Author: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Publisher: Oni Press
Publication Date: June 15th, 2005
Genre: YA, Graphic Novel

Scott Pilgrim is back and about to fight Ramona’s second evil ex-boyfriend, Lucas Lee. If he wants to date the mysterious Ramona Flowers, Scott will have to defeat her seven exes. Lucas Lee, skater and actor, dated Ramona in the ninth grade, and now Scott will have to defeat him. Will Scott triumph? Will he finally break up with Knives Chau, a self-professed Scott-aholic? Will Sex-Bomb-Omb make it big? And what will happen when Scott’s ex-girlfriend, Envy Adams, returns to Toronto with her band? When it feels like the whole world is against him, Scott will to step it up to be with the girl of his dreams.

In the sequel to Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, Scott Pilgrim is currently dating two girls: the young and innocent Knives, and Ramona, who’s cool and mysterious but comes with tons of baggage. The story begins with a flashback to Scott and Kim meeting in high school, and at first I was a bit confused as to what was going on and why this was relevant. However, it was interesting to learn more about Kim and Scott. I thought that Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World didn’t read as smoothly as Precious Little Life, since there were parts that were a bit confusing and rocky. However, it was still entertaining overall. It makes Canada (specifically Toronto) seem very cool. Which is refreshing, since it feels like all my non-Canadian friends are always making fun of Canada’s 'lameness' (apparently if you live in a country with children playing hockey on your five dollar bills, you’re asking to be made fun of.) There are battles at Casa Loma and the Toronto Reference Library and a gig at Lee’s Palace. I loved the drawings, especially since I’d been to most of the places in the book and knew what they were supposed to look like. The characters are just as quirky and charming as ever, and pretty much everyone is likeable (except the bad guys, obviously.) The plot was fast paced and original, making Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World a book that was a lot of fun to read. The sequel didn’t quite match the original, but it was still fresh and enjoyable. I will definitely be continuing with this epic and funny series.

4/5

Review: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life

Title: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life (Scott Pilgrim #1)
Author: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Publisher: Oni Press
Publication Date: July 28th, 2004
Genre: YA, Graphic Novel

Twenty-three year old Scott Pilgrim’s life is pretty awesome. He lives in Toronto with his roommate, Wallace Wells, and he’s currently in-between jobs. Scott spends his time playing bass in his band, shopping at goodwill, playing video games and listening to music. Scott is also dating Knives Chau, who is only seventeen. Things become complicated when he meets Ramona Flowers, who is literally the girl of his dreams. Cool and mysterious, Ramona is the opposite of Knives, and Scott can’t stay away. Unfortunately, if Scott wants to date Ramona he will have to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. Will Scott, the ultimate slacker, be able to fight to be with the girl he loves?

Amazing! I loved the movie and I loved the book. I’ve wanted to read this ever since I saw the movie last year. However, since I knew I’d read it very quickly, I didn’t want to spend the $10 to buy it. After waiting on a very long list at my library, I was finally able to read it a few days ago. The movie followed the first book very closely, and I wasn’t disappointed. I basically love everything about Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life. First off, Scott lives in Toronto, and many references are made to places in the city. This might make me sound very lame, but I love it when books or movie reference places I’ve been to. The characters were amazing; they were all quirky, original and very funny. Scott’s kind of a strange hero; he’s a major slacker and can be a jerk at times, but he can also be charming and adorable. Overall, he’s a good guy who has a lot of growing up to do. I found Ramona to be a lot more likable in the book than in the movie. I found Movie-Ramona to be annoyingly aloof, while Book-Ramona feels more like a real person to me. The plot definitely was original and quick paced. I really liked the drawings, especially the funny captions (such as the diagram of Scott and Wallace’s apartment and who owns what.) Overall, Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life was a quick read that was fun, original and hilarious. I don’t usually read graphic novels, and this makes me want to read more of them. If you are a little bit nerdy, I’d definitely recommend this. I’d also recommend this to reluctant readers. Easily one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time.

5/5

The Arthur Conan Doyle Room in the Toronto Reference Library

Back in May I went to see the Toronto Reference Library's Arthur Conan Doyle Collection.  I actually had no idea that this was in Toronto until I saw it on tumblr in December or so. The collection features  Doyle's books in many editions, as well as Sherlock Holmes parodies, comics, abridged versions, film adaptations and books about Doyle and his novels. The room pays homage to Doyle's most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes. Set up to look like 221B Baker Street, the room features Holmes memorabilia, and items such as deer hats and violin cases. 

The room is on the 5th floor of the Toronto Reference Library, at 789 Yonge Street. It is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 2 to 4pm or by appointment. If you go, I'd recommend going downstairs to the library's book shop, Book Ends, which is also open at that time. I've bought some really good books there for very cheap. Other than specially priced books, no single item is over one dollar. 

The collection had so many cool books and collectables, and I think any fan of Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes would love it. So, thus ends another tale of fun times at the library.