On Friday evening, local author and artist Lynn Starter came by the store to meet readers, share her stories and talk about the history and people of Rathtrevor Beach, which also happens to be the subject of her new book.

A description from the book’s website:

“Tales of Rathtrevor Beach: Legacy of a Family”
by Lynn Starter

This book is an account of the lives of the people of Rathtrevor Beach, gained from documented research, done both in Canada and in Ireland, from Lynn Starter’s personal relationship with some of the Rath family, and includes the author’s memoir of happy childhood summers spent with the Rath family.

You can read more about the book at RathtrevorBeach.ca, or come into Gallowglass Books — hours/address/map — anytime to take a look. And if you don’t live in the area just email us for more information.

The book is brand new and priced at $25.95, filled with Ms. Starter’s own original art throughout on full-color plates.

It was a lovely evening (even Christmas Carolers stopped by!) and we extend our deepest thanks to Ms. Starter for choosing to share her book with our patrons.

*A few more photos by Jeff available here.

Typography is a subject about which many people — particularly book people — are passionate. For those who dive into a book simply to read the words this can seem like an odd obsession, but really it’s just the marriage of words and art.

And that’s a concept almost every bibliophile can appreciate.

The Wikipedia defines typography as:

Typography is the art and techniques of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques.

Of course, the use of fonts goes far beyond books. Everything from street signage to product labels to online media all obsess about fonts before making a commitment.

Looking at sites like Eightface one can easily find some unique websites and blogs dedicated to the subject of fonts. To whet your appetite for the subject, here are a few diverse choices you can sink your teeth into:

• Rob Banham’s Trash Type
• The story of Helvetica fonts and their use on the New York subway system.
• Speaking of Helvetica fonts, just last year there was a feature length documentary released all about typography and graphic design titled Helvetica. (You can view some trailers here).
• Check out the blog, The Ampersand, dedicated entirely to — you guessed it — ampersands!
• And for film buffs, Mark Simonson’s Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies

And if you find yourself so crazy for type you even want to bathe in it, you can almost achieve that, too (or at least, dry off in it!). Via the Swiss Miss, here’s the T-Towel:

Welcome to the newly-redesigned website for Gallowglass Books which also includes this shiny new blog. We’ll be updating it regularly with news about the store, about our community here on Vancouver Island, and about various book-ish things we come across around the ‘net.

Our hope is to make this a useful spot not just to show off books and our bookstore (although we will be doing a lot of that, too!) but the people and places of the Cowichan Valley. So you can expect a wide variety of topics around here in the future.

Latest News

With the Christmas season upon us, the store is now open till 8pm from Monday to Friday. As always, weekend hours are Saturdays 10-6pm and Sundays 12pm -4pm.

In Duncan, Christmas festivities — shopping and parties and so on — always seem to kick off “officially” with the annual Christmas fireworks display. This photo (property of the DBIA website) shows last year’s lightshow, which happens directly above the bookstore. Which is pretty spectacular, isn’t it?

Downtown Duncan Fireworks

This year’s show was also great fun. Put on by RE/MAX of Duncan-Mill Bay, Santa and the fireworks drew large crowds on Friday night. I took a few photos of things going on around the neighbourhood that night, if anyone is interested.

Anyway, we look forward to your feedback on anything and everything, so don’t hesitate to drop us a line anytime.

Til next time…