“Have you ever been to Chapters at 9 p.m.?” Tamara Gorin asks. “They’re kicking people out.”
People love books and they love a space where they can share stories, the Port Coquitlam resident says.
And come this fall, Gorin and her partner Dianne Ganz will create just that — a community hub where they can sell new and used books as well as generate ideas for writers and other literary lovers.
This week, the pair is expected to sign a lease at a downtown Port Coquitlam site for a book store under their company’s name: Western Sky Books.
They launched their online platform earlier this year after Gorin and Ganz collected second-hand books from around Metro Vancouver.
Now, they have more than 20,000 titles in storage — some of which they’re offering at weekly farmers’ and flea markets in PoCo, Port Moody and Cloverdale.
At the markets, “you get to be where the people are. There’s a lot of vibrancy,” Gorin says. “You get to find out what they want to read and you get to build relationships, which is going to be important for us as we get a storefront.”
At last Thursday’s PoCo Farmers’ Market, in Leigh Square Community Arts Village, Western Sky’s kiosk is bustling.
There are shoppers who visit every week to purchase books, Gorin says, most of them looking for CanLit (Gorin’s favourite genre), classics and children’s page turners.
Gorin is grateful to market manager Aynsley Wong Meldrum for allowing a place for a small book retailer to set up shop. “The society is very flexible for vendors of all sizes,” she says. “It is giving small businesses that are invested in the community a chance.”
Gorin jumped on the book selling bandwagon last year after a few life turns.
In the social services field for years — as a crisis worker and rape crisis centre co-ordinator (Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter); a community outreach counsellor (Pacific Community Society); and a supportive housing co-ordinator (Alouette Homestart Society) — Gorin forged ahead with her literary ambitions while at The Writers’ Studio at SFU in 2006.
She thrived in the poetry cohort and even co-edited the student anthology.
Two years ago, Gorin decided to make the jump and leave her career, realizing she didn’t want further promotion or a subsequent master’s degree. She had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis earlier and “I needed to take care of myself," she said.
Before her mother died, Gorin and her mom relived a childhood dream of opening book store.
Afterward, and on Employment Insurance, Gorin signed up for the year-long Self Employment Program at Douglas College, which gave her the skills to become an entrepreneur.
Ganz, a floral wholesaler and Terry Fox secondary grad, was on board with Gorin’s new direction. “We wanted to invest our money ourselves and we wanted get into the community,” Gorin says. “The book store seemed like the perfect way to do that.”
She adds, “It’s a way to live my values in a happy way.”
• To donate your books to Western Sky, email [email protected] or visit westernskybooks.com.
