By: Nimra Khan
It seems that fiction’s intrigue for Scotland can never be quenched. This intrigue lies at the heart of author SJ Garland’s recent Scotland-based Markinch series which includes the books Scotch Rising and Pretender at the Gate.
Garland’s books follow the story of Captain Clyde-Dalton, an English soldier sent to the town of Markinch, Scotland at a time when England and Scotland are to join Great Britain. With his Native American wife recently murdered, Clyde-Dalton arrives in the town ready to finish his post there. But surprising murders and accusations turn up, leading to the unearthing of a Jacobite plan that continues into the second book. While the beginning is a little slow as you get used to the Scottish dialect and history, the story only gets more suspenseful as it unfolds. It’s hard to reveal much about the plot without spoiling everything, but there are plenty of gun-toting, brash men, along with a surprising love interest that ends in the most unexpected of ways.
I’ve yet to visit Scotland, but Garland has actually lived there. When asked what she loved most, she admitted: “The people. Scots are great fun...whether I’m taking in a show at the Edinburgh Fringe festival or having a pint down the pub, there are always friendly Scots around.”
Garland also stressed that she is a historical fiction writer, not a historian.
“The large part of my research happens after I have the major plot lines written. It is important, I think, to add just enough historical detail in order to set the time and place of a historical novel without it becoming a history lesson. Historical fiction should be an escape from the banality of everyday life.”
Speaking of a history lesson, Scotch Rising involves the Captain learning a lot about the Highland’s love for scotch and taking pride in scotch-making.
Garland admitted that it actually took her a few years before she enjoyed scotch. “There are so many different variations of scotch, that it can really symbolize the local culture of each village in Scotland. Some areas use unique distilling techniques.”
The perspective of the Captain in this series is interesting because he isn’t a likeable hero. When asked why her books involved such an abrasive and harsh protagonist, Garland said, “I like a flawed character, one who must look within themselves in order to overcome some sort of obstacle. It is a much more realistic interpretation of the human condition.”
Another major theme of this series is about being an outsider (otherwise known as a Sassenach). While both sides have their own prejudices, Garland explains that, “at the time of the story’s setting, 1707, many people never left their village ... most people would have received their information from the outside world through hearsay and rumours. Once the Captain lived in the village for a few months, [the] inhabitants ... realized most of the rumours about the English were not true.”
Finishing this series, I discovered that it’s the first published work by Garland. Considering the challenges involved in writing books, Garland admitted she had to adjust to many things. “The first was having the confidence to put my manuscript out into the world. The second has been engaging in a marketplace for authors that is changing every day. It is still possible to get book deals with the big five publishers, but ebook readers and print on demand services have also made it possible for authors to get their work out to readers.”
Far from a fresh-faced author now, Garland is busy with future books. Captain Hawk, the first in a series of four books, comes out May 2015. Leaving Scotland this time, Garland explains that it will be set in Singapore between 1822 and 1823 as a port is secured for the East India Company. “The main character, Nathaniel Hawk, finds himself in Singapore battling pirates, the East India Company and his former friends.”
With Garland bringing more spark to history in the coming year, there’s a lot to look forward to. Meanwhile, the Markinch series is a must for lovers of historical fiction, especially when it concerns Scotland or Outlander fans.
Brianna Buziak
The Silhouette
As much as we love the fine establishments that surround the McMaster campus, there comes a time in every student’s career that calls for venturing past that comfort zone to see what else Hamilton has to offer. Any bus heading downtown will take passengers past Locke St., an area known as a hub for independently owned restaurants, coffee shops, and clothing stores, just to name a few. After some website surfing and a trip down to Locke, we decided to give these businesses some special attention.
Ole Gourmet Mexican Grill 82 Locke St. S.
Located at 82 Locke Street South, Ole Gourmet Mexican Grill is one of the first places you will see after getting off of the bus. The counter of the shop contains a large window where you can see your taco being made right in front of you. Every Tuesday, Ole Gourmet offers up pulled pork tacos at the reasonable price of $2.
The Button Pushers 119b Locke St. S.
Just before the hill is where you will find this beloved vintage hot spot. As the awning boldly declares, they provide customers with “vintage clothes, custom buttons, art and propaganda.” The Button Pushers has a variety of buttons available to buy, but if nothing quite peaks your interest, you can always request a quote for small or large orders and get custom buttons made. The schedule for new batches of clothes varies so be sure to check often to find one-of-a-kind pieces that no one else on campus will have.
Johnny’s Coffee 129 Locke St. S.
If you blink, you almost miss this quaint Locke St. café- but don’t let the outside fool you. With approximately ten tables, it provides a cozy environment, not to mention the friendly barista who greeted us with a warm welcome. Equipped with board games and a house chess set, sit down and enjoy the unique coffee shop that is Johnny’s Coffee. And while you’re enjoying one of the two featured coffees, or a vegan biscotti, follow a tip from their website and be sure to ask about the “Train Game.”
Shirin’s Fine Foods 139 Locke St. S.
Shirin’s Fine Foods hosts a variety of food to suit every taste. From tarts to cookies, coffee to chocolate, and ice cream to gluten-free brownies, Shirin’s should have something for everyone. They also surprisingly carry cabbage rolls and perogies, including dessert perogies, for those who cannot get enough of these European dumplings. They have a great selection of ice cream from birthday cake to chocolate peanut butter, but it’s only available for a few more weeks! Shirin’s is open six days a week, and closed on Mondays.
SC Consignment 162 Locke St. S.
This sleek boutique located at 162 Locke St. S. is for those who love to find designer pieces at a lower price point. They accept consignment by appointment Monday through to Friday. For those fashionistas who love designer brands, perhaps a trip to SC Consignment will mean finding a dress for one of the many upcoming formals being hosted at McMaster.
Democracy/Locke Street Coffee 202 Locke St. S.
It is not hard to miss this coffee shop on Locke, mainly because you can literally walk in from the street. A large garage-like door stands between Democracy/Locke Street Coffee and potential customers, but on the hot, sunny day that we went to Locke, the door was open so there was nothing to stop people from checking it out. The walls are painted with chalkboard paint and coloured chalk is in abundance for those who wish to express their creativity. Do not expect to be surfing the web or checking your Twitter feed in Democracy, as the chalkboard message bluntly puts it, they do not have Wi-Fi, they would rather you talk to each other. With a variety of pastry, desserts, and bagels from the Locke Street Bakery, enjoy a treat, a cup of coffee and conversation at Democracy.
Epic Books 226 Locke St. S.
Right now, Epic Books has a large tree in the front window. The large paper tree is from a recent Locke Street festival where people were asked to write their favourite children’s book on one of the corresponding leaves. But as the woman behind the counter informed us “it’s not just children’s books.” Epic Books is a warm environment where browsing is made comfortable. They have a section dedicated to local Hamilton authors for those who wish to keep it close to home. After some browsing, our personal favourite was Bun B’s Rap Colouring and Activity Book which includes a page that requires the reader to draw a freehand picture of Jay Z with a pre-printed outline of a New York Yankees hat because, after all, he made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can. Clearly that fine piece of literature is not a children’s book.
Bitten 219 Locke St. S.
After checking out the Bitten website, we knew that a visit to the cupcake and whoopee pie store was non-negotiable. Decorated in white, green and orange, it mirrors the playful look and atmosphere of the website to a T. The shop has a large window overlooking all the confectionary creations customers can choose from, including red velvet, peanut butter, or Rolo cupcakes and pies, just to name a few. If you want to have the larger selection from their extensive menu, the best time to go is around noon, just do not go on Mondays, as that is the only day of the week that they are closed.
Rob Hardy
The Silhouette
With the start of another school year, lining up at the campus bookstore is one of the familiar rituals of getting the term going.
Strolling through earlier this week, I couldn’t help lingering and browsing as I checked out what students are reading in other courses - courses I’ve taken before that have changed their syllabus, and others which I may or may never take but am curious to look up anyway. Though the idea of spending any more time reading than you have to for class may seem crazy for many of us, it can be part of how you get ideas for programs you might want to take, or definitely decide are not for you.
Aside from this, there is the simple curiosity of bookworms. The kind that has us scanning top 100 book lists, futilely gauging how well read we’ve become. There is some comfort in knowing that despite the rapid changes of society, language, books and what people deem important today, famous novelists, essayists and various other masters of the written word have survived through the years, remaining a staple of university education.
Perhaps this is so because even though many of us like to think we are more advanced than ever, the truth is there are many lessons to be gleaned from the enormous depth of past Russian literature, endless debates to be had about Ancient Greek philosophers, and exceptional delight in reading and rereading the likes of Henry David Thoreau, Emily Bronte, and (occasionally) Karl Marx.
So, as this school year revs up, remember the intrinsic rewards of reading mainstay authors of past generations and eras, maybe simply because something about the cover intrigued you.
Likely though, these are not what you’d find at the top of your reading lists.
But as time goes by, there may emerge some sentimental attachment to what has been passed down and encountered during your undergraduate years. And one day, even if you know you may never fully get through it all, you just might just buy that thick Tolstoy sitting on a shelf in some bookstore at the start of term.
From Harry Potter to Twilight, it’s a very common thing to see your favourite book become a movie. It can be exciting and terrifying, waiting and dreading that movie - wondering if Hollywood will do the book justice or ruin it like so many other movie adaptions you’ve seen.
It’s difficult to know for sure which was the first book to become a movie, but is generally thought to be either The Passion of Christ, Dracula, Frankenstein or A Christmas Carol. This trend of turning popular books into movies has always been a huge economic opportunity for movie-makers, and while remakes of popular books continues to this day (e.g. the recent Anna Karenina starring Keira Knightley), it’s also surprising to see the number of unknown books being adapted into movies.
In 2012, adaptations of particularly popular books included The Hobbit, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Life of Pi and The Hunger Games. But a surprising number of movies were released that were based on far lesser known books. Such movies include Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, Cosmopolis by Don Delillo, and Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. I ignorantly felt certain that they were original, unique stories written by a screenwriter in Hollywood, especially Silver Linings Playbook, since it was nominated for an Oscar.
There is a long list of books to become movies for 2013. Some well-known ones will be The Host by Stephenie Meyer, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and a remake of Carrie by Stephen King. Some of the lesser known books-to-movies of 2013 include Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, Serena by Ron Rash and World War Z by Max Brooks. It would seem that Hollywood has lost its spark, and relies on novels to adapt into movies instead of releasing something entirely new and creative.
Don’t get me wrong - it isn’t uninteresting or totally uncreative to adapt books to movies. I love a well-adapted book to movie as much as the next person. But a dangerous thing can happen when books become movies. Sometimes, the movies are remembered and the books forgotten. If you think this is a silly statement here is a list of movies that I was surprised to find were books: Jaws by Peter Benchley, Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers, The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith, and Friday Night Lights: a Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger.
Worse than a book being forgotten is an author who is disgusted or even goes so far as to wish they hadn’t written their novel. While watching Disney’s Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers cried (from unhappiness) during the screening, Roald Dahl hated the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and refused to let Charlie in the Glass Elevator be turned into a movie, and Anthony Burgess wished he never wrote A Clockwork Orange. My favourite is J.D. Salinger, who was so mortified when his short story Uncle Wiggly in Conneticut (renamed My Foolish Heart in its film adaption) was adapted into film that he swore his books would never again be turned into film, and to this day they haven’t.
It seems that Hollywood doesn’t want to make movies that accurately depict the inspiring book. Hollywood takes for granted the money it will make from readers who want to see the movie because they already love the book, but Hollywood can make even more money by making the movie for the movie-going public. The result is popular actors and actresses in starring roles, poorly written scripts and completely random plot twists that catch the excitement of the movie-going public but disgust the readers.
This trend of books being adapted into movies will continue, and it should. It is a chance for the author to gain more readership and help publishing sales. But it would be nice if Hollywood had some unique ideas of their own - something original. But I guess that’s too much to ask.
Sarah O’Connor
The McMaster Libraries Archives is more than just a museum for books. Their collection includes original works that once provoked mass outrage and book burnings.
Freedom to Read Week is an annual celebration sponsored by the Freedom of Expression Committee that runs this year from Feb. 24 to March 2. The week was initially founded as a result of attacks on Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women in 1978.
McMaster Archivist Renu Barrett took The Silhouette through three particular works that McMaster owns as part of an exploration of formerly banned books.
McMaster owns a first edition of Ulysses by James Joyce, which is no. 332 of the first 1000 published. The work was considered so contentious that publishers refused to distribute the work, so it was originally sold by subscription. Ulysses was banned from being published in the UK.
Barrett speculated that Ulysses was considered so controversial because Joyce wrote it from his stream of consciousness and was very free with his language. The work is so full of obscenities and sexually explicit language that Joyce was warned during an early review that he would need to revise his work.
Joyce refused and in 1932 US Customs seized a copy and declared it “obscene.” Eventually, in a landmark censorship decision, the novel was declared not pornographic and was allowed to be published.
McMaster also owns a copy of Dialogo by Galileo. Dialogo is considered to be extremely rare given that most copies were seized and burned following it being banned by the Catholic Church in 1633.
The work was considered heretical for endorsing a heliocentric view of the universe, which ran counter to Church teachings. McMaster acquired this particular work in the 1960s.
Barrett gave Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners as an example of a more contemporary work that was highly contested for its language and exploration of sexuality, race, class and abortion.
In 1974 The Diviners won the Governor General’s Award, Canada’s top literary prize. But by 1976 the book was banned by local school boards. In the 1980s the book was again subject to criticism, this time from the Catholic Church. McMaster has part of the original manuscript in Laurence’s handwriting.
Barrett explained how freedom to read week continues to remain an important part of both retelling literary history and discussing current works, stating that “it highlights the value of access to information and allows ideas that may be unpopular or unorthodox to be voiced.”
Barrett reiterated how, as an academic library McMaster, has never banned works from its collections.
But she also noted that censorship in public libraries can still exist in more subtle an innocuous ways explaining that “a public library may take a book off of the must-read or top-read list if community groups rally against a certain book.”
In the past few years, works such as His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman or the Harry Potter series have attracted intense controversy. But Barrett notes that the internet provides a valuable tool for mediating knee-jerk reactions and calls for book banning.
“Book banning and censorship is a less prevalent issue because of the access available through the internet or book downloads. So in one way we have less control over publication, but on the other hand, the internet can provide a forum where different groups can engage in dialogue to reasonably discuss their objections.”
After spending about five weeks in Europe this past summer, I compiled an impressive collection of secondhand books. There was the entire Harry Potter series in French, the Kurt Vonnegut novel with a love note scrawled on the inside cover, a look-book of Yves St. Laurent’s designs, a funny little picture book about two very ugly monsters falling in love in Paris, a vintage Spiderman comic – and the list goes on. My luggage was already slightly overweight when I flew into Lyon, and the situation became much, much worse on my flight home.
I went back and forth between weighing my suitcase and rearranging my things for about three hours in the middle of the airport. I threw out towels, clothing, shoes – but I refused to part with my beloved books. The result was that I wore several layers of clothing (dresses, socks, men’s jackets) with books stuffed in the waistbands of my many pants. I was asked more than once if I was traveling up North (which really doesn’t even make sense…why would I have already started layering up?)
When I recounted this story back home, everybody asked me, why on earth did you buy so many books? All these books could have been purchased here or found online, why was it necessary to fly them over from another continent?
I was indignant. Where would I find the entire Harry Potter series in French that could document my journey in St. Etienne so beautifully? There was a little second-hand book and record store just outside of the university that I was studying at and I stumbled into it on my lunch break one day and discovered the third Harry Potter. It became like a mini-adventure, each day hoping that I would find another book in the series.
Where would I find a Kurt Vonnegut with a “Chere Marie, tu me manques!” written in barely legible handwriting on the inside? When else would I visit “Shakespeare & Co.” – the place that famous writers from all over the world would sleep and write and live – and find the St. Laurent look-book? When else would I stroll along the River Seine, looking at all the vintage booths and learning the owners’ strange and lovely stories?
There were classic record shores at every turn, hundred-year-old books being sold at every street corner, and colourful, interesting thrift stores for people of all styles. I felt nostalgic about these items, being drawn into my own Midnight in Paris, reminiscing a past that I found far more poetic. I felt nostalgic about my own two-decade-long past, reflecting on the decisions I had made and feeling reassured that I had made the right ones because here I was, walking down the streets of Paris with my best friends. And I felt an overwhelming nostalgia hovering above me, fully aware that in a few short weeks it would envelope me whole once I returned home. It was a nostalgia for this trip where I had found new dreams, new identities, new friends, and new love.
And so, we present to you ANDY’S “nostalgia” issue – as we look back on all those things that have brought us to where we are now.
By Sarah O’Connor
“Books belong to their readers.” So says young adult author John Green. This phrase is a relatively new way of thinking for authors – namely, that the books they write actually belong to its readers.
But how can a book belong to its reader?
If a person buys the book then yes, they physically own it. But how can a reader own the story they haven’t written? The author created and outlined it. They spent many long days and nights perfecting the right words to make their precious story told. So how can a reader own it?
What Green is in fact talking about may take some explaining. Green is saying that a reader owns a book in the way they interpret it. The way the author’s words speak to them, analyzing the actions of certain characters or the setting of a novel. Green says the reader owns the book in the realm of interpretation and that what the author meant to say is not as important as what the reader reads.
In the past, author’s owned their works in a physical and spiritual sense. They owned the words and if a reader thought differently from the main message, they were wrong. I tend to side with Green in some areas of books belonging to their readers.
More than enough times I have interpreted a book a certain way only to be crushed by the author when finding out it has a completely different interpretation.
And it’s because the authors are the creators that they have more say in their story. Which you could argue true but it could also be argued that the student can be their own creator.
So whom does a book belong to? The author or the reader? The creator or the viewer?
I like to think there is a hidden in-between and that both author and reader own a story. Obviously, the author created it and owns the idea.
The author created the world, gave birth to the characters and put obstacles in their way to create a story.
But the reader owns the aftermath - all the events that happen when a book ends, the lives of minor characters, other seemingly meaningless things and certain words and phrases that speak to them.
They both own the story. The creator inspires the viewer to create their own ideas and become creators themselves.
There will always be stories and we will both always own a part of them.
By Ariel Garlow
I’ll start this blunt. As a big fan of the literary world, I’m sort of peeved when the occasional person says, “ugh, we don’t read any classic female authors because most fans of literature today still devalue women! Look at these female authors we aren’t reading - that’s a sign of patriarchal oppression!”
There are fewer classic female authors because of the gender issues in the past. Correct. And since there are fewer female authors, you are going to notice that you’re reading more male classic authors than female. The amount of good literature a teacher or professor can choose from on the side of male authors is a big pool, not because classic male authors are better but because they are just more common. The entire pool of female authors is, thus, smaller.
You shouldn’t force people to read books just because females write them. You should give people books to read because that book is good. Forcing students to read female authors almost seems like you don’t have enough faith in the talent of said authors.
So let’s say there’s an equal ratio of good authors to shitty authors in each classical gender pool. Say the number 100 represents the male pool, and 20 represents the female pool. Now let’s say the equal ratio of good authors is 40 percent (admit that not everyone who writes a book is good at it). That means you can pull 40 good male authors from their pool, and 8 good female authors from their respective pool.
But wait, you say, 40 men and only 8 women? That’s completely unfair. Now we’re drowning in male power fantasies and father-son relationships. Where’s the female perspective?
I agree that the fact that only having 8 good female-written novels as compared to 40 good male-written novels is a total rip-off. Though quite a few classic male authors, take F. Scott Fitzgerald or Turgenev for instance, can write from the female perspective without totally screwing it up, you can bet that at least half of that 40 is going to be focusing almost entirely from their own perspective. That’s what writers do best, whether we like it or not. “Write about what you know” isn’t a suggestion, it’s almost the basic formula for a great piece of literature.
But are we only reading 8 female authors as opposed to 40 male authors because our current society devalues women? Despite that women are still at a disadvantage, this is not the main case. We are simply feeling the repercussions of the classic age. What I mean is, it would have been swell if women writers in the 1800’s or early 1900’s were given more chance to show their talents. But they weren’t.
Many great old female writers we still cherish today even felt it necessary to use male (or gender neutral) pseudonyms. George Eliot, author of Silas Marner, was really Mary Anne Evans; Charlotte Bronte often went under “Currer Bell”; the author of Little Women, “A.M. Barnard”, is Louisa May Alcott. Would I like to change the past so that the pool of classic women authors is bigger, and thus more women authors who powerfully excel to the top ranks of literary fame? Of course I would. I can’t think of many people who would say “no” if they were suddenly given the ability to allocate more gender equality to our often shameful past on this planet. Can we do that? Unfortunately, no, history cannot be re-written. This is also why I think it’s important to read a mix of classic and contemporary authors.
So what can be done to ensure great classic women writers are given a chance? I think one way some professors go about the issue is ultimately damaging.
Suddenly, you’re not reading a book because it’s good; you’re reading it because a woman writes it.
Suddenly you’re stating that this writer isn’t unpopular because they have a terrible novel, but because of their gender status alone.
Suddenly (and this is what I abhor so much about the problem) great women writers of the past are overlooked because they’ve apparently already “had their time to shine”. Is Harper Lee too mainstream for you now? Did Mary Shelley suddenly stop being a woman? Did Edith Wharton do something to piss of the Gender Studies department at McMaster? Willa Cather? Charlotte Perkins Gilman? We don’t all agree with Ayn Rand, but as someone with clean style and ability as a novelist, why does her name never come up when we’re talking about these prolific women writers? Don’t you still enjoy Sylvia Plath?
Why is it always Jane Austen plus some writer I’ve never heard of and frankly wish I’d never read?
By forcing students to read these obscure female authors, I don’t think we’re helping possible literature fans respect the capabilities women.
I think we’re teaching new English students that women’s rights in the writing world has to be a painful and boring experience, when it can be an inspiring one. This doesn’t mean, “let’s only read the people we already know.”
A great woman once wrote a book alternatively titled The Modern Prometheus with fright, astounding insight, amazing narrative and deep emotional value. It was imaginative and takes the reader outside the commonplace yet still in the realms of societal critique.
Instead you’re telling them to read about how a couple of young ladies went to some boring parties and cared way too much about what Mr. Darcy thinks.
One day, I hope to be a writer. I’d like to believe that my novels will be read because I am good, not simply because I am a woman and some feminist literature prof is exploiting my gender representation to make a point.
during the summer months, most students have homes to return to or jobs to keep them busy until school begins again in september. as an eighteen-year-old jobless first-year student, i had more free time than the average university student. when i wasn’t desperately handing out resumes in the hopes of getting a job, i had time to tackle the forever rising pile of books by my bed. for the most part, they wound up being novels by john green, the american author of young adult fiction. here are some of my favourites of his work:
Paper Towns by John Green
I made it my goal to read every John Green novel this past summer, but my time ran out. Paper Towns is beautifully written and makes one question how much we really know about a person. The story challenges readers to look deeper beyond the surface, because there really is more to a person than his or her appearance or what is said about them.
Favourite quote: “Maybe all the strings inside him broke.”
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Yes, another John Green book. This one had a little too much math in it for my taste (there was a lot that I didn’t understand). But it’s a great book that’s funny and thought-provoking, with fun little footnotes all over the place.
Favourite quote: “Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.”
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
This story questions coincidence and fate when two boys with the same name meet each other in a lonely part of Chicago. Both live very different lives and end up learning about themselves and each other throughout the novel.
Favourite quote: “It’s hard to believe in coincidence, but it’s even harder to believe in anything else.”
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The final John Green book I read this summer – this one’s about a sixteen year old girl with cancer. I know you must be thinking that this must be another typical cancer book with love, death, and tears. And in many ways you’re right. But there’s also enough humour and honesty to make it uniquely touching.
Favourite quote: “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.”
Sarah O’Connor
Farzeen Foda
Senior News Editor
The beginning of each term brings a new rush to bookstores, with students left at the mercy of professors who insist on using new editions of textbooks, and publishers who eagerly await the opportunity to correct a few typos and sell a new edition of an old textbook at almost double the cost.
Textbookrental.ca is a relatively new company, which started as a proactive measure against high textbook prices.
The rental service, which has been mentioned by Macleans and The Globe and Mail, was established by recent university graduates, and is currently run by alumni as well as current university students. The service also boasts a quick and simplistic rental process, “saving students up to 75 per cent off the regular textbook price,” said Jack Neary, Business Development Manager for textbookrental.ca.
Exorbitant prices of textbooks over and above regular tuition fees is a painful pinch on the already stretched wallet, especially when most textbooks serve little to no purpose once a course is completed.
“I hate spending so much money on a textbook that I’ll never use again and have difficulty selling once I’m done with it. It’s the biggest waste of money I can think of,” said Ankita Dubey, a fourth year Psychology student at McMaster.
As recent graduates or current university students themselves, those at textbookrental.ca understand this sentiment and put forth every effort to make their service as student-friendly as possible.
Students can search their textbook of interest online at the company website, using the ISBN number of the textbook, and order it at a nominal shipping rate. Textbookrental.ca subsidizes shipping fees through Canada Post allowing students to have their textbooks delivered directly to them within 2-3 business days, noted Neary.
This feature is intended to save students the back-breaking labour of transporting heavy textbooks home upon purchase, he explained.
Upon rental, the cost of rental varies with the amount of time the student requests to keep the textbook. Once the rental period is has elapsed, students can return the textbook to one of many depots located in key university cities in Ontario and across Canada. Currently, depots are located throughout the GTA, Hamilton, Waterloo, Guelph, Windsor and Montreal. The company is expected to soon establish depots in Kingston, Ottawa and in the west coast, including Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. Return of textbooks can also be done free of charge through postage as the cost of mailing will be reimbursed by textbookrental.ca, explained Neary.
The Hamilton depot is located relatively close to McMaster, on King St. West, and has seen substantial business from McMaster University as well as Mohawk College students.
Students can also sell their used textbooks to textbookrental.ca with a buy-back service available year-round, where “students can receive cash on the spot,” said Neary, explaining that textbook values are monitored daily to get a fair price based on supply and demand, and for buy-backs, “we value [textbooks] higher than the bookstore,” he said.
A textbook rental service of this calibre is a relatively new concept in Canada with another service of its kind “BookMob” which operates similarly, however, in the United States, textbook rental services are more widespread and numerous, with Chegg.com as a popular service that operates in conjunction with the publishing company McGraw Hill.
A simple alternative to traditional textbook purchasing does not come without its opposition. For textbook rental services, publishers remain concerned about their financial status as a result of such programs, as many services of this sort do not give any portion of their rental revenue to the publishers of the titles rented, including textbookrental.ca.
Collen O’Neill from the Canadian Publishers Council, in an interview with Macleans, referred to these rental programs an “administrative nightmare” for publishers in the United States.
For the purposes of students, textbook rental services tend to be fairly successful, another service operating in Canada, biblio.com proved to be helpful for Stena Sothiratnam, a first year Masters in Global Health Student at McMaster who was able to find the textbooks she needed at a much lower cost than the traditional bookstore. “I’ve used biblio.com and textbooks are so much cheaper,” she said.
