Word on the Street - Have you heard?
By Samanthan Chen
Issue date: 10/4/07 Section: Arts and Culture
At first glance, all you see is a bunch of white tents and tables with some books on it. There's nothing particularly snazzy about this. There are no bright colours, no deafening music, no giant sculpture. But then, you take a second glance. That's when you see it: what appeared to be a few tents with a few books has suddenly turned into a street festival.
Word on the Street is an annual festival that runs the last Sunday of September. It covers all of Queens Park, starting from North of Wellesley, up to the tip of Queens park, and spilling slightly into St. Josephs and Hoskins Avenue. This event is far from the book fair most people imagine.
For the avid reader, this is heaven on Earth: countless tents, all selling books, and at excellent prices too. HarperCollins was selling first, second and third books of The Princess Diaries series for only $5. For pre-teens, they sold the first three installments of A Series of Unfortunate Events, for the same low price. Names such as Scholastic, BMV and Dorling Kindersley had tents selling educational books.
The endless variety was of the type most people only dream of. Not only did the books cater to various age groups, they also catered to hobbies, languages, and diverse interests. There were books from almost any genre imaginable, available in French, Spanish, Swedish, and Japanese. Genres ranged from science-fiction to women's studies, cooking, comic books, and religion, from audio to the predominant printed page.
The other half of the festival was dedicated to magazines. It is, after all, a "book and magazine" festival. The types of magazines that could be found at the festival spanned from well known to less recognized titles. For children, Owl had its own tent, as did many lesser known magazines. One tent offered subscription a slew of magazines.
The best part about this festival was that, though it did cover mainstream publishers, it also exposed the public to magazines that aren't as recognized. It would be an understatement to say that the festival had good finds; a more appropriate name for it would be the Library of Alexandria. There were many different magazines that catered to various interests (including human rights, politics, and literature and arts) that were on the whole less recognized.
Word on the Street is an annual festival that runs the last Sunday of September. It covers all of Queens Park, starting from North of Wellesley, up to the tip of Queens park, and spilling slightly into St. Josephs and Hoskins Avenue. This event is far from the book fair most people imagine.
For the avid reader, this is heaven on Earth: countless tents, all selling books, and at excellent prices too. HarperCollins was selling first, second and third books of The Princess Diaries series for only $5. For pre-teens, they sold the first three installments of A Series of Unfortunate Events, for the same low price. Names such as Scholastic, BMV and Dorling Kindersley had tents selling educational books.
The endless variety was of the type most people only dream of. Not only did the books cater to various age groups, they also catered to hobbies, languages, and diverse interests. There were books from almost any genre imaginable, available in French, Spanish, Swedish, and Japanese. Genres ranged from science-fiction to women's studies, cooking, comic books, and religion, from audio to the predominant printed page.
The other half of the festival was dedicated to magazines. It is, after all, a "book and magazine" festival. The types of magazines that could be found at the festival spanned from well known to less recognized titles. For children, Owl had its own tent, as did many lesser known magazines. One tent offered subscription a slew of magazines.
The best part about this festival was that, though it did cover mainstream publishers, it also exposed the public to magazines that aren't as recognized. It would be an understatement to say that the festival had good finds; a more appropriate name for it would be the Library of Alexandria. There were many different magazines that catered to various interests (including human rights, politics, and literature and arts) that were on the whole less recognized.
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