Best place to read your crappy poetry to an audience

Railway Club
579 Dunsmuir Street
604-681-1625

Remember those darker years when you hated your mother, despised your best friend, and crushed on boys? You can relive all that every first Tuesday of the month at Teen Angst night at the Railway Club. Going strong since 2000, this tongue-in-cheek get-together continues to dredge up old diaries, embarrassing poems, and stories from our yesteryears that we’d probably rather forget. So grab those lovelorn love letters and tear-stained song lyrics you never quite put to music and join host Jane Stanton for a zit-poppin’ moody good time!

Best place to engage the international literati

The Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival
Granville Island

For some of the city’s bibliophiles, fall officially arrives with the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival. Now in its 22nd year, the festival (October 18 to 25) gathers authors on Granville Island to participate in events like readings, panel discussions, and interviews. This year’s big draws include American authors John Irving, O. Henry Prize winner Lorrie Moore, and Audrey Niffenegger, who wrote the best-selling The Time Traveler’s Wife. Also featured are members of the local and national literary community, with Douglas Coupland, Joseph Boyden, and Lisa Moore among them. The programming at the festival extends beyond North America and this year counts international guests like Man Booker Prize nominee Sarah Waters, Australia’s Joan London, and Xi Chuan, one of China’s most prominent poets. This is your chance to discover new authors as well as listen to and meet some of your favourites from here and abroad.

Best place to read Alan Moore

Golden Age Collectibles
852 Granville Street
604-683-2819

Okay, so there is Garth Ennis (not to mention a whole raft of French and Italian authors who really know what they’re doing), but for genuine lovers of the graphic novel, only one name really matters, and that name is Alan Moore. Although copies of the major works by this mysterious English anarchist/witch (Watchmen; V for Vendetta; From Hell; The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) are widely available, others (Promethea; Tom Strong; Top Ten) are usually found only in specialized comic shops. If you’re looking for his really hard-to-find stuff, however (Magic Words; The Complete BoJeffries Saga, etcetera), then Golden Age Collectibles is the one place to go. To be sure, many other graphic-novel emporia boast powerful attractions of their own (especially the Comicshop, at 2089 West 4th Avenue), but Moore completists need to make a pilgrimage to the downtown core.

Best campus bookstore for raising a bilingual child

UBC Bookstore
6200 University Boulevard
604-822-2665

Although best known as a source of textbooks and academic works, the UBC Bookstore is a gold mine of children’s literature. The place sells a huge array of foreign-language children’s books, flash cards, and other learning tools. Parents hoping to teach their kids French can pick up Dr. Seuss classics like Horton Entend un Zou! or Les Oeufs Verts au Jambon. And foreign-language kiddie lit doesn’t just have to be for children. Because adult fiction may be a little too advanced while you’re learning a new language, foreign children’s literature may be the best way for you to boost your vocabulary. What better way to learn Spanish than to pick up a copy of El Gato en el Sombrero and eventually graduate to Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal?

Most poetic coffee-table book

A Verse Map of Vancouver

Vancouver poet laureate George McWhirter and photographer Derek von Essen have teamed up with 100 poets to create a book that will look fabulous on any coffee table, round or square, metal or wood-hewn. The book, published by Anvil Press, pairs poems with photographs of places in the city to create a beautiful portrait of Vancouver, suitable for gift-giving.

Best Vancouver Craft Book

Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti

Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain have written the definitive guidebook—published by Vancouver’s fabulous Arsenal Pulp Press—to covert textile street art. If you haven’t heard, “yarn bombing” is the act of installing crafts in unexpected public spaces. Examples include creating woolly parking meters or a soft woolen handle for a metal door to make the hard edges of the urban landscape that much more cozy. Recently featured on the New Yorker books blog, the kick-ass DIY patterns ensure that your attempts at transforming your own locale will move well beyond your grandma’s tea cosy.

Best Reason for a Celine Dion Comeback

In May, Graham Fraser, the commissioner of official languages, released his annual report on Canadian bilingualism. Among other worrisome findings—out of five Canadian airports, YVR ranked the worst for offering services in both French and English—Fraser voiced concerns over Vancouver’s ability to host a bilingual Olympics after VANOC’s February faux pas, in which the one-year-countdown concert’s French programming was provided by Luke Doucet instead of a celebrated French-Canadian performer.