Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/118148
by the way Book Bank Story and photography by Darrell Noakes If words had weight, those in the roughly 300,000 volumes at Crawford's Used Books in Perdue would make for hefty reading. Housed in the former Merchants Bank of Canada brick building at the corner of 7th Street and J Avenue, the majority of Ralph Crawford's massive collection lines the shelves, hardwood floor and window wells, even spilling into the entryway. Three semi-trailers and an antique transit bus hold the overflow. 46 W E S T W O R L D p46-47_ByTheWay.indd 46 >> Ask for a once-popular cookbook or a first edition of Winston Churchill's six-volume The Second World War, and Crawford can instantly lay his fingers on it. "I try to carry a wide variety for pretty well every taste," Crawford says, his articulate manner showing a hint of a Maritime accent. "I try to appreciate what others enjoy reading, as well as what I enjoy reading. I think that's the secret to being able to sell books." Crawford opened his shop in Perdue (pop. 362) seven years ago, having moved from New Brunswick where a new highway bypassed his store there. "Originally, I had thought of moving to the Lower Mainland of B.C., but I'm quite pleased I didn't," he says. "It would be nice to be in a city, but it's going to cost you a lot more to operate. If you have a bookstore, and they like what you have and like dealing with you, people will come. People do go out of their way to come here." WINTER 2012 12-10-25 9:15 AM