The Pape Library Branch near my home. One of my happy places in the city

As I may have mentioned a few times so far on this blog, I had made the decision in late 1999 to sell all of my belongings, and move from the small Eastern Townships university town I’d called home, to the metropolis of Toronto, where the love of my life, the lovely Naomi, was living at the time, working for CBC.

Upon my move to the city, we had our share of obstacles, such as finding a place together (with a third roommate, though that hasn’t been the case for decades now), finding employment (which as a bilingual adult was a very expedient and successful process), and working out ways to save on expenses, namely on entertainment.

As a creature of habit, I’d spent the better part of my life growing up with a fascination for movies, and a new life in Toronto opened me up to sooooo much of it.

Not just in terms of selection, but soon also to the coincidental fact that many of the products I was consuming turned out to be produced right in the city, or oftentimes, even in my neighborhood.

Having left a small town job co-managing a video store (I know, predictable, right?) I immediately set my sights on the best video stores in the downtown core, so to get my hands on the cheapest VHS rentals of the time. Sure, there was the local mom and pop place around the corner, but also more popular spots like Bay Street Video and Queen Video, all of them cult-like venues that provided the most obscure and fanatic titles, be they artsy or not.

My wife soon pointed out how easy it would be to lose oneself into a money pit of rentals, given the sheer selection. That’s when she pointed out that the city’s very own library system, aptly named the Toronto Public Library, would also have these great titles, at no cost, for essentially the same experience.

My reaction was one of dubiousness at best; if anything, I indicated to my sweetheart that, as much as a VHS tape of a PBS-like discourse on the mating habits of Amazonian frogs might seem like captivating viewing for some, it sadly wouldn’t hold a candle to a good action film by Michael Bay, or a great animated yarn by Hayao Miyazaki, at least for my pseudo-discerning palate.

“But darling, they have those also!”, she exclaimed, soon leading me to their website, where I began to enter titles at random, only to find out that they didn’t have a copy of Princess Mononoke, but literally dozens!

Granted, given that this library system has 100 branches servicing millions of citizens, there was a fair chance that I wouldn’t be able to get my hands on every title the day of release, but at the same time, the hundreds of thousands of copies (in both DVD and VHS format) would allow me to watch older titles, all the while keeping my name in the queue until it was my turn at the good stuff, which I could hold onto for at least a week.

Thus began my love affair with my local Branch, the Pape location. It’s a steady relationship I’ve been on for over 23 and a half years, and going strong.

From its incredibly friendly staff to the amazing layout, the branch’s ability to bring in titles from other branches, made it an ideal pick up spot for everything from movies to novels to graphic novels, magazines, CDs, the list goes on.

Faced with so much to choose from, a dire sense of FOMO (that’s Fear Of Missing Out, for you newbs) settled in, leading me to a beginners’ mistake, a comical condition my wife has commonly referred to as “Library Greed”.

The way the library system in Toronto works is this: At the time in 2000, up until a few years ago during the Covid lockdown, a user could sign out up to 75 items at a time, with the caveat that one would need to face late fees if not returning items in good time, so to allow other users the same privilege.

About a year ago, the library board of directors elected to reduce that limit to 50 titles at a time, but also did away with all late fees, perhaps as a means to entice users with balances owing to return to their favorite branches, thereby increasing usage and justify getting higher funding from the city.

In any case, the TPL (as I love to call it) has fed me with countless books, graphic novels (my favorite type of reading), music, TV shows and movies on DVD, and more e-books than I care to count. It’s truly one of my favorite things about Toronto, and I would miss it terribly if we ever decide to sell our place and move to a small town.

I encourage you to sign up for a card if you live in the Greater Toronto Area. It’s free, all that is required is a proof of residence, and you’re off to a great adventure in reading and viewing!