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Phone: (250) 595-4232
Fax: (250) 595-1458
#111-1644 Hillside Ave.
Victoria, B.C. V8T 2C5
New Releases
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Easter Weekend Hours!
The Easter long weekend is upon us, and with it, the first hints of spring.
Our hours for the long weekend are:
Good Friday 8:30 am to 6 pm
Saturday 8:30 am to 9 pm
Sunday 10 am to 6 pm
Easter Monday 8:30 am to 9 pm
Have a great long weekend everyone!
Freedom to Read Week
Sometimes, it’s easy to take our freedoms for granted. We live in a country where our freedom of expression is enshrined in the Constitution; we are, it is easy to believe, free to read what and where we like.
This is not, however, the case. Books are still routinely challenged, censored and banned, for reasons ranging from gender and sexuality issues to religion to political beliefs.
This week, February 24 – March 2, 2013, is Freedom To Read Week in Canada, an annual reminder that those freedoms we hold dear sometimes need fighting for.
Spend a little time on the Freedom to Read website to familiarize yourself with the issues (I think you’ll be shocked at some of the actions that have been taken in the recent past), and this week, read a book that has faced challenges in the recent past (this list has a whole lot of great candidates). Fight for your freedom to read.
Cheryl Strayed, Friday May 10
Bolen Books is pleased to announce a very special Victoria appearance from Cheryl Strayed, New York Times bestselling author of Wild and tiny beautiful things.
Wild is a stunning read, and was both a bestseller and a sensation on its hardcover publication last spring. Chosen as the first pick for Oprah’s re-launched bookclub, the book is “a powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again”. It’s a truly unforgettable reading experience.
As Wild was being published and lauded, Strayed revealed that she was the heart and voice behind the Dear Sugar advice column on therumpus.net, distilling wisdom out of the worst of situations with a clarity and empathy that frequently brought a tear to the readers’ eye. tiny beautiful things collects many of those columns — and includes previously unpublished pieces. It’s an incredible read, something you’ll find yourself going back to over and over: profoundly human, unflinchingly honest, and utterly beautiful.
Join Bolen Books as we welcome Cheryl Strayed to Victoria to talk about Wild and tiny beautiful things. Friday, May 10, 7:30 pm, at St. Ann’s Academy Auditorium. Tickets are only $5, and are available now!
14 Classic Albums Reimagined as Books
If you’re like us, you might have other passions in your life, in addition to books. For me, one of those passions is music.
So this post from our friends at Buzzfeed, 14 Classic Albums Reimagined As Books, made me smile on a variety of levels, and I couldn’t resist sharing.
Kudos to British designer Christophe Gowans for this little project to brighten the middle of our week.
Neil Gaiman’s Calendar of Tales
This is a big year for Neil Gaiman: he’s got three new books coming out (including two children’s books and his long-awaited new novel for adults, The Ocean at the End of the Lane) plus a new instalment in the beloved Sandman graphic novel series. But apparently, Neil likes to keep busy.
A couple of weeks ago, Gaiman flooded Twitter with hourly questions, each tied to a particularly month (the first question, for example, was for January: Neil asked, “Why is January so dangerous?”). And every hour, his followers replied by the thousands. Following it live, in real-time, was a dazzling, staggering experience, pure, unadulterated humanity and creativity, at times hilarious and heartbreaking, thought-provoking and emotionally wrenching.
The questions were for a project which Gaiman is undertaking under the auspices of Blackberry’s latest promotional campaign.
Boiled down: from the responses to those questions, Neil would pick a single tweet that would serve as a prompt for a short story. Inspired by the voluminous twitter flood, Gaiman would then write a dozen short stories, one for each month of the year.
But that’s just the beginning…
The stories are finished, and they’re dazzling. And now it’s time for the next step of the project.
At this link, you’ll find all of the stories for download. The plan now is for readers to take those stories and make them their own, to create art around them and contribute it to what is turning into a global calendar.
And there WILL be a calendar. And a limited edition book, composed of the stories and some of the art submitted.
This is an amazing idea, a stunning collaborative process between writers and artists, between readers and writers, which would have been impossible before the days of social media. We’ll be following it over the next few months, but in the meantime, read the stories, make your art, be a part of this adventure.
Canada Reads!
While we on the wet coast were enjoying our first Family Day holiday yesterday, Canada Reads kicked off from CBC headquarters in downtown Toronto.
We’re not going to post any spoilers right now, but things are off to a very interesting start for the first two days.
Here’s Monday’s episode, for your viewing pleasure.
And here is today’s instalment of Canada’s Annual Title Fight!
Bolen Books, in the news
Who says there’s no good news anymore?
We’ve been talking about it here for a while now, but now it’s official: there’s a great article in the Times Colonist this morning by Carla Wilson with a lot more information about the renovations we’re about to undertake at the store, and some of our plans to make Bolen Books even better. Check it out!
Kids’ Corner!
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Cobble Hill Puzzles
