SHA'AREI TORAH
(Gates of Torah)

WAKE UP USA!
CANADA READS GOOD BOOKS;
WHY DON'T YOU?

Strange as it may be to be writing a "My Trip to _____" essay at my age, I can't neglect to add something personal to my newsletter about my recent visit to Kamloops, B.C. This was my first trip to Canada, and I made a wonderful discovery: Canadians love books! This first came to my attention almost immediately upon my arrival at Vancouver International Airport, where I noticed several passengers reading books! Not cheap, mass-market thrillers, but bona-fide expressions of thinking, creative minds. This impression was confirmed when I browsed the bookstands at the nearest airport gift shop. Real books. Good books. Definitely not standard L.A. International Airport gift shop fare.

Despite the unmistakable change from the Southern California intellectual climate, it is probably not enough to permit sweeping conclusions about the reading habits of Canadian citizens. It is enough, however, to justify the hypothesis: Canada loves and appreciates books. Real books. Worthwhile books. It was symmetrically fitting that on my return trip I should find more compelling evidence that this hypothesis is true.

Truck stop at Cache Creek on the Trans-Canada Highway: Gas, food, and a good book!"

Incapable of resisting the persuasive force of a dear friend and fellow poet, I had no choice but to let Rumours of Bees co-author Alex Forbes drive me back to Vancouver Airport, so he could show me the scenic treasures along the Trans-Canada Highway. Indeed, the Fraser Canyon offers many awesome and soul-expanding vistas. However, the most remarkable discovery of the five-hour journey had little to do with the geographic landscape. As we stopped for gas at a Husky truck station at Cache Creek, I was stunned to find, adjacent to the cashier, a little bookstand filled with a curious assortment of genuine regional literature—books with sober and tasteful covers and quaint and quirky titles: The Death of Albert Johnson, Mad Trapper of Rat River; Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives; A Man Called Moses; History & Happenings in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, etc.

Canadian truck drivers on the Trans-Canada Highway read good books! Some of the titles on sale at the Husky gas station include The Death of Albert Johnson, Mad Trapper of Rat River, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, A Man Called Moses, History & Happenings in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, etc.

Do you hear what I am saying? Here was a gas station management who took sufficient pride in their Western-Canada culture to give a little space to local and regional writers and publishers. No girlie mags, here, no slick, bestselling excursions into crime, sex and horror. Just a modest sampling of Cariboo-Chilcotin color and culture, legend and lore, authored by the people who live there and value the lay of the land and the spirit of the place.

Do I need to tell you that I have never seen anything like this in a Southern California gas station or convenience store? Has any one seen anything comparable anywhere along the highways stitched across our great land? What a tribute to the working, travelling, hauling population of our neighbor to the north! What faith in the basic solidness and cleanliness of its education and intellect! What an admirable showing of respect and honor for the writer's vocation! The manager assured me that the books actually sell, and often sell out before the next shipment arrives. And, yes, the drivers of those multiwheeled roaring freighters of the road are among the most avid readers of these honest tomes. The publisher of the books, should you be interested, was Heritage House, located in Surrey, B.C. Their website is
http://www.heritagehouse.ca

Here's a thought for the Mobil, the Chevron, the Union, the Exxon, the Shell and other gas stations that pepper our Southern California landscape: Do people want to read quality literature if given the opportunity?

People do.