Ice Over the Grand

"I propose that we use the term "koob,"  book spelt backwards, to describe [junk reading]... I've sold a lot of koobs in my day and plan to continue to do so, but I do respect books and I think a distinction must be made."

~ Jack McClelland (1922 - 2004) President of McClelland & Stewart, interviewed in 1973, quoted by James King in Jack:  A Life with Writers, The Story of Jack McClelland (1999)

"When I started out as a scribbler, something like fifty years ago, you could fit all of Canada's quality writers into a Volkswagen and still have room to pick up a hitchhiker.  These happy days we could just about fill a bus."

~ Mordecai Richler (Jan. 27, 1931 - July 3, 2001) Canadian novelist, essayist, screenwriter, quoted in the National Post, Dec. 11, 1999.

Smile For Today ~  Peter C. Newman's description of Canadian writing in the fifties.

"...the status of Canadian writers ranked somewhere between taxidermists and rat exterminators.  Their works ~ often concerning the mating habits of beavers, the memoirs of forlorn women braving life on the frontier, or the history of the North-West Mounted Police ~ were relegated to a section labelled 'CANADIANA' at the back of the library, quite a festive word for such a dreary collection.  'CANADIANA' was located between other sluggish sections such as 'CALLIGRAPHY' and 'CANNIBALISM,' ensuring that readers seldom ventured into those nether regions.  Groping through those dark shelves, I managed to read all of Hugh MacLennan, Donald Creighton, and Bruce Hutchison, even if my sense of national identity was not yet fully developed."

~ Peter C. Newman, Canadian author, journalist. (b. May 10, 1921) Here Be Dragons/ Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2004.

The Road Not Taken
by ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in  a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ~
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~ Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 - January 29, 1963) U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Wishing you health, happiness & prosperity in the new year...
The Neat L'l Bookshop

The Old & New Side-by-Side

       
Progress on the New Bridge ~   See you in Cayuga-on-the-Grand!

Smile for Today ~

"On the anniversary of Queen Victoria's death, her children would visit the mausoleum at Frogmore.  One year, as they knelt piously in prayer, a dove entered the mausoleum and flew about. 'It is dear Mama's spirit,' they murmured.  'No, I am sure it's not,' contradicted Princess Louise.  'It must be dear Mama's spirit,' they persisted.  'No, it isn't,' said Princess Louise.  'Dear Mama's spirit would never have ruined Beatrice's hat."

Queen Victoria born May 24, 1819, died on January 22, 1901 after a long reign on the British throne -- sixty-three years, seven months.

The Neat L'l Bookshop will be closed for holidays; opening again on Wed., January 8, 10:30.

 We are available by phone 905.577.5635 or e-mail lbwalker@shaw.ca OR neatlittlebookshop@gmail.com