Since 1974, Laughing Oyster Books has been a stalwart presence for the literary arts community in Courtenay, BC. The dream of a bookstore began in the heady seventies when two couples who shared a sailboat wanted to spend half a year on land and half at sea.
Evelyn Gillespie, who has been the owner since 2008, recalls the original bookseller-sailors. “They wanted to be distributors from a sailboat — books on keels! I think that was a great dream in the seventies!”
Gillespie says the couples would sail to Desolation Sound collecting orders from people for books that they wanted, which they would then deliver later. Originally from Saskatchewan, the couples were part of an influx of people coming into the Comox Valley in the seventies. There were also many pacifists, objectors, draft dodgers, as well as people who were looking to live off the land, and this caused the little town of Courtenay to grow vastly. “1974 was the same year that the community arts council and gallery started up,” Gillespie says. “It was a very vibrant time in the community.”
Today, the bookshop is “located right downtown,” she says proudly. “We have a knitting and yarn store, a chocolate bakery, furniture shops. They’re all independent businesses.”
Gillespie’s knowledge of Courtenay would make one think she was born there, but she grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and moved to the Island in 1994 to raise kids with her husband, who often spent his summers in the Comox Valley. She says she was lucky to stumble on the opportunity to buy Laughing Oyster. “It was totally by word of mouth. Somebody happened to tell me that this bookstore was for sale. It’s exactly the kind of business I’ve often dreamed about, so I started the negotiation.”
Prior to bookselling, Gillespie ran a summer resort for seven years and worked in volunteer services before that. She hadn’t sold books before, but she had deep roots in the community, which helped her learn how to be a bookseller. “I was certainly a good customer and reader, but I felt that what I didn’t know about books, I knew about community, and the bookstore is kind of a community centre, a place where people come to talk about ideas. It’s a place I’d want to be.”
Gillespie’s bookstore has certainly become a gathering place for the community, particularly the children’s section, which is tucked away in an alcove within the store. “Lots of parents and grandparents come in looking for books for their kids,” she says. “Generally, the store is a great place to come when you’re on vacation and you’ve had enough of the beach.”
Aside from creating a community for the residents, there are also poets who visit the store regularly, such as Arleen Paré, currently the writer in residence at the McLoughlin Gardens, as well as Cornelia Hoogland, with whom Gillespie hosted an event.
Though, Gillespie admits that poetry is a hard sell. She says that “poets are very specific and often know exactly what they want,” so she receives calls for orders, the most recent order being Lorna Crozier’s new book of poems, God of Shadows.
In addition to taking individual orders, Gillespie keeps tabs on bestseller lists and BC Book Prize nominations. “BC books do well,” she says. “I have a real passion for them and we have a pretty good section of BC books.” She has been personally promoting Esi Edugyan’s latest novel, Washington Black, which hit the shelves in late August, as well as Caitlin Press’ Dancing in Gumboots, a sequel to the Gumboot Girls, a collection of essays on the lives of women who moved to the north coast in the seventies to live through activities such as fishing and tree-planting.
Despite all the love for books and BC books in particular, Gillespie returns to her roots in the community, where she finds her sense of belonging. “Every day there’s an interesting experience at the bookstore,” she says. Last week she ran into a customer who often came into her bookstore and read silently in a corner. He told her that he always feels so good when he goes to her bookstore. When she asked him why, she recalled him saying, “It feels like home. Nobody bothers me. It feels like a place that has a lot of hospitality.” Gillespie was warmed by his comments. “In my personal life, hospitality is really important, you know, to have friends and family feel welcome. It’s how I operate, so I was so glad to hear it.”
Shazia Hafiz Ramji is the author of Port of Being (Invisible Publishing, 2018), which received the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Best Canadian Poetry, Quill & Quire, and the Chicago Review of Books.
Photos courtesy of Laughing Oyster Bookstore. Featured photo (top) by Monica Miller.