I recall this being a bookstore from my very earliest memories. I recall being with my dad in the rusty yellow Datsun going after breakfast at Murray's.
Boss was an older sourpuss middle-aged bald guy who my father conducted some serious negotiations with for a whole pile of Scientific American magazines (books?).
I guess his name was Diamond because it was Diamond Books.
I remember studying the way they interacted, and I got the impression that this guy was doing whatever my dad wanted him to do. Both of them middle aged guys in rumpled suits yacking away in some lingo they both knew better than I did as a kid, it was like watching a Jack Lemmon movie or something.
I occasionally shopped for books there afterwards, there was some young guy who was to take the store over 20 years later but somehow tragically died and they had a picture up in his honour which I found a bit unsettling. There's a For Rent sign in the window now but you can guess they won't be selling books there anymore.
At store has changed hands a few times recently. But for the longest time I think it was owned by the same person who owned Russell Books on Saint Anthony street (the facade now part of the Palace of Congresses behemoth).
ReplyDeleteLatterly an attractive female employee offered to show me a book of Japanese porn. I got nervous and wandered home to my wife.
Turns out it has been owned by the same owners as Encore Books (about 10 blocks west of there, on the sputh side of Sherbrooke). They have used records as well but set their prices according to what people are asking for them on ebay. Rubbish. Dude wanted $25 for a Hank Marvin album from 1972. Scoffed when I offered him 10, which was generous.
It will be interesting to see what takes its place. Might I suggest a shoemaker, 2 of which have disappeared from the area in the past 20 years.
Uncle Charlie.
That was my impression too, that it had been a bookstore for decades. I think that's where I sold off my Tom Swift and Tom Corbett books in the early seventies, thinking I'd outgrown them.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get much for them, yet I overpaid for the books that I could get.
But while Diamond Books has been there for over forty years, I did wonder if it had stayed at the same storefront, since it's a long time and yet it's never made that big a splash.
Nobody ever really talked about it (though then, few mention NDG Paperbacks that has been around for decades too, at various locations) and it finally closes as a bookstore without any fanfare.
It's changed hands in recent times. The Russell Family of "Book Nook" fame owned it for a while, until 2004, but I can'y find when they bought it. In recent years, about 2 or 3, it was a satellite to Encore Books further into NDG.
Before Encore took it over, they were occasionally doing theatre in the space, with the books still in place.
I seem to recall it's not just ownership that has changed, but the form. It was a used book store when I first knew it, but at some point it seemed to be for remaindered books, and I want to say there was a period when it was selling new books, but I'm not sure of that.
I went past on June 27th and scored an LCD monitor from a pile in front of the store, then noticed bags of books. I took some, some people passing by joined in, on my way home others were looking over the books.
You're right, it's not likely to be a bookstore anymore. All the previous times, it's just shifted ownership, but they cleared out the books and the shelving so clearly nobody came along to take it over.
Michael
I think the place has recently been called "Original" Books, and it wouldn't be too surprising if it is closing. Unless you're Amazon, times are very, very tough in the book business. The original Diamond owner was a guy named Archie (never knew his last name), who struck me as just a grumpy old fart the odd time I stopped in there back in the 70's. Not my cup of tea, although once he'd sold Diamond he took up shopping at my place on Ste.Catherine near St.Marc, and he was always quite pleasant. Several of my customers told me was a really sweet guy, once you got to know him.
ReplyDeleteThe "tragic young guy" was Niall Russell. I think he was the one who got the place into remaindered books. I used to run into him at shows from here to Chicago. Claimed he'd get jazzed up on meth to handle the pace of his buying trips, and watching him go through wholesalers' stock, I could believe it. I was told he OD'd one night, thus the "tragic end". Too bad- he really was a nice fella.
So who's left?
It's kinda strange to hear a Dad tell his kid that our place (Astro) "is where I used to go when I was little".
Okay, we've been around since 1984, here on Ste.Cath since '87, but that isn't that long ago, is it?
Oh Jesus. I'm a geezer. How did that happen?
So who's left? Us, Steve Welch, Terry Westcott, and of course Adrian at The Word...
Anybody else? Is Cheap Thrills still around?
Cheap Thrills is definately still around - great selection of new (and used) vinyl. Haven't been to Astro since 1990 -- time for another visit!
ReplyDeleteUncle Charlie.
I used to go to Diamond regularly too when I lived in Montreal, it's a shame it closed. I got a really nice CD from there last summer when I came back to visit my family.
ReplyDeleteMy only memory of that young man that died, is unfortunately, an unpleasant one and one that saddens me.
My mom and I were only Sherbrooke street early one morning (about 7:30 am) to do some work at my uncle's store and saw that the door was open to Diamond and that there was bags of groceries strewn around the floor just outside the shop and inside. We went in to see if someone was hurt or needed help as all the lights were out and Nial was there drunk and covered in vomit. We asked if he was ok and if he needed help but he started getting agressive, swearing at us and calling us not very nice names so we left quickly.
I always felt sad for him and he died not very long after that.
Oh. Din't know that one. That's sad.
ReplyDeleteThe one I miss the most was the one on St-Antoine, near Pascal.
And there was a great one on Mc-Gill, near St-Paul, but it burned down something like 30 years ago.
Hello, Diamond Books friends. When I was a grad student at McGill I lived in NDG and became a good friend of the owner of Diamond Books. He died in Toronto in 1993 after a long heart illness. His name was Archie Handel. He his brother and sister were children of a Jewish couple originally immigrated from pogroms in Ukraine. I remember his Mom's primary language was Yiddish. Archie's brother pre-deceased him. His sister married a Mr Roddick. He has a nephew Frank.
ReplyDeleteArchie did look grumpy and disheveled in the 80s but was a sophisticated, comical highly intelligent man.
Rest eternal!