This year, Simon Thomas of Stuck in a Book and Tea or Books fame made a fourth stab at what he refers to as "Project 24," his goal being to purchase only twenty-four books "for myself" throughout the year. The "for myself" bit is important. Why deprive friends?
As most my books are stored in one of our outbuildings – there's no way they would all fit in the house –
I chose to follow Simon's example. My Project 24 had a different carve-out: I would not be counting books purchased at a certain charity shop in nearby Smiths Falls. My justification for the exception had to do with my support of the charity... and, admittedly, the ridiculously low prices. One 2024 visit yielded three signed Margaret Atwood first editions from the 'seventies for two dollars in total.
When June hit I was feeling quite proud of my myself. I'd purchased just eight books. I'd been picky, even at the charity shop, Between Friends/Entre Amis being my only purchase.
All fell apart two days later when I visited a different charity shop, this one in Brockville, where I came across twelve seemingly unopened Folio Society Anthony Trollope novels at $2.50 each. I bought the lot. This meant that to get back on track I would have to keep my wallet in check until November.
Of course, I paid no mind to that constraint, continuing apace until late August when contractors appeared at our door, bringing the year's book buying to an abrupt end
Home renovations will do that.
I ended up purchasing twenty-nine books in 2025, which is far from a disgrace when one takes into account the twelve Trollopes. This year's list of best buys is atypical in that it features two Canadian books I already owned, and another that is Canadian in title only:
The Victors
Robert Barr
New York: Stokes, 1901
There are real bargains to be had with Robert Barr. Most titles listed online are dirt cheap – so cheap that booksellers can't be bothered to provide a photo. Such was the case with this novel. I have no idea what it is about, but the subtitle, A Romance of Yesterday Morning & This Afternoon, intrigues.
The Girl from Toronto
Hugh Clevely
London: Amalgamated, 1954
A last minute addition to an order placed with a UK bookseller, the title caught my eye. Hugh Clevely was a Brit. Nothing in the two-columned 64-pages suggests he ever so much as visited Toronto. But that cover!
Beaumont S. Cornell
Toronto: Ryerson, 1923
A novel set in a "provincial city" modeled on Brockville, Ontario, I'd been looking for a copy since buying a home in the area seven years ago. Cornell was born in nearby Athens Township and became a leading figure in cancer research. The jacket promises a "motif of woman-interest introduced in a rather unusual way." Intriguing!
Murder in a Road Gang
Hugh Cresswell
London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1936
Long a subject of interest, I tracked down a copy of this early Canadian murder mystery, likely the very first to be set on the Prairies. Illicit drugs figure!
John Murray Gibbon
New York: John Lane, 1916
The scarce debut novel from the same man who would one day write the brilliant
Pagan Love (1922). This one appears to have been inspired by the Parisian art world. I'll let you know. A fortuitous eBay find, I was surprised and delighted to find that the copy I received was inscribed by the author.
A View of the Town
Jan Hilliard [Hilda Kay Grant]New York: Abelard-
Schulman, 1954I already owned a copy of Nelson, Foster & Scott first Canadian edition, but this was signed! The author's first true novel, it is one of only two set in Nova Scotia, the author's home province.
Eric Cecil Morris
Montreal: Whitcombe &
Gilmour, 1950
Morris should be remembered for having co-written 1965's The Squeaking Wheel, but that bigoted screed is as forgotten as his quirky debut novel A Voice is Calling (1947). I was going on about Morris to a friend when I remembered this second novel. The only copy listed online was signed. An easy sale.
Hugh Pedley
Toronto: William Briggs, 1913
Early 20th-century Christian science fiction inspired in part by early 19th-century Washington Irving, in Looking Forward a pious man of science hibernates for decades, awakening to a Canada made utopian by the union of its Protestant denominations.
Sister Woman
J.G. Sime
London: Grant Richards, 1919This book is in horrible condition, but is so very rare that I had to rescue it. The Quebec bookseller had no idea what he had.
Unrecognized in its day, the novel has since been returned to print by Tecumseh Press (sadly, also unrecognized).
Anything Could Happen!
Toronto: Longmans, 1961
Phyllis Brett Young
A thing of beauty, I first purchased a copy in Toronto six years ago. This memoir of sorts inspired by a summer spent as a girl in Muskoka is not only signed by the author but also inscribed by her mother as a gift to an English relative.
Twenty-twenty-five brought four generous donations to the Dusty Bookcase:
The Great Canadian Novel
Harry J. Boyle
Toronto: PaperJacks, 1973
A novel I've been meaning to read for over forty years, if only because of the title. When my parents were in university, both Bonheur d'occasion and Two Solitudes were promoted as the Great Canadian Novel. Fifth Business was mentioned most often during my own university years. What are the kids being told today, I wonder.
I have my doubts that The Great Canadian Novel "lives up to its title," as the late Peter C. Newman claimed, but aim to find out.
Robert Stevenson: Engineer and Sea Builder
Kay Grant [Hilda Kay Grant]
New York: Meredith, 1969
A gift from the author's literary executor, Robert Stevenson was the second of the author's two biographies, the first being Where the copy of A View of the Town above is signed "Jan Hilliard." this book is signed "Kay Grant." An accomplished lighthouse engineer, Stevenson was the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Beside Still Waters
Edna Jaques
Toronto: Thomas Allen, 1939
This summer, my friend Forrest Pass fed my Edna Jaques obsession with a copy of the poet's fifth collection. Seventy-five titles in total, of those I've read 'To a Radio' is my favourite.
The Poetry of Robert Henri Alphonse McGee
Bob McGee
Sherbrooke, QC: GGEL, 2025
My interest in Bob McGee can be traced back to the 2023 fiftieth anniversary of Véhicule Press. The poet's Three Dozen Sonnets & Fast Drawings was the publisher's very first book. Imagine my surprise in being contacted by Libbey Griffith asking whether I'd like a copy of this new collection.
Would I!
An inscribed copy arrived in my mailbox a couple of weeks later. It's a beautifully produced collection, featuring Three Dozen Sonnets & Fast Drawings and McGee's 1977 follow-up Shanty-Horses, James Bay Poems, along with the previously unpublished 'The Labovrs of Alphonsvs' and 'Votive Haiku,' interspersed with colour illustrations. The cover painting and author portrait are by Libbey Griffith.
I'll be making a second Project 24 attempt in 2026... even though my Abebooks shopping basket holds eighty-nine books.
