There seems to be a harmonious trilogy in having a bookstore, an ice cream parlour, and a cafe triangle in close proximity. I first noticed this at Glass Bookshop (now Magpie Books), and the combination hit me again when I arrived at Porch Light Books, Edmonton’s newest independent bookstore, within the last minutes of dusk.

Porch Light Books is on Edmonton’s much-loved 99th Street, and its neighbours include some of the province’s best-known cafés and dining spots. Suffice to say, there are many reasons to visit the area, and among these esteemed businesses, Porch Light Books packs a hefty punch of its own, with good book after good book packed into every nook and cranny.

The shop is a mix of new and used books, with the majority of shelf space taken up by the gently used. The distinction between new and used book ontologies is not immediately apparent. Michael Hingston, the shop’s proprietor, is as fussy with the quality and condition of his used stock as he is with the new. His expert curation creates a bookstore experience where it does not matter which book ends up in your hands. Whatever it is, you can be sure the title’s good quality.

Porch Light’s highlighted new titles are beautifully arranged on a massive wood table with the grain showing through. Hingston extends the new section into a southern leg of the shop where you’ll find a palatable range of books organized in loose categories. With economy of space in mind, aside from books, the shop carries only the best merchandise: postcards, a storytelling card game, literary jigsaw puzzles, and innovative maps that highlight periods of architecture and design in various cities.

Michael Hingston’s been in and around the book and writing world for a very long time. He is an accomplished journalist, novelist, travelogue-ist. He has co-authored a number of successful books and ghostwritten even more. He is also one half of Hingston & Olsen, the publisher responsible for the Short Story Advent Calendar and other innovative publishing projects. Finally, as one would expect from any bookstore owner, he’s an insatiable reader with a diverse annual reading list that rivals any anthology. Because I was aware of his accomplished past, I posed the most important question I could think of: “Michael, why was opening a bookstore the next logical step in your life when you’ve accomplished dozens of other feats in the literary sphere?”

He replied, “It’s the last step of the book ecosystem for me: [Writer. Publisher. Reader] … The bookselling world is the connecting space. You take the thing that’s been made by all these people, and you put it in the hands of the person that has the meaningful experience with it.”

The bookstore is where the feedback loop can resolve, where the author and publisher can converse with readers and receive positive or negative commentary in real time. Hingston feels like it’s this in situ feedback that he was missing in his other pursuits. “Talking to people in person is the antidote for a lot of things. That’s what rejuvenates me.”

“When you come in and see a place you can hang out in with other people in your city and have a fun conversation and listen to music and buy a book you’ve never seen in person before, it’s obvious the appeal of that and how much fun that is. My favourite people are the people who spend an hour in the shop. They’re getting the true value of the store.”

The necessary localization of an independent bookstore, that it exists and serves in its community, is something Hingston was searching for in his other literary activities. He notes, “I think that’s something people notice here. This is not coming from corporate. All of the decisions are actively being made by the person in the store. You get the personality of the owner. At least that’s what I hope comes through. Porch Light has a different flavour than the chain stores, certainly, but even than the other indies in town. I like that I do things a little differently than they do. It means I don’t feel like I’m competing with them. We’re all just trying to create slightly different versions of what a bookstore could be.”

This uniqueness inherent in independent bookstores enables Hingston to think Edmonton has capacity for even more. He observes that the city is still climbing back from the bookstores it lost in the 1990s and early 2000s, even while the population rose.

Porch Light hopes to get even better at curation in the coming months and years. Always a responsible book shepherd, Hingston says, “Every day if you see a book you’ve never seen before, you have to learn what that book is. How do I truly learn what I have and explain that to people? I don’t just want to have junk on the shelf that’s up to everyone else to figure out what it is.”

Porch Light Books is well worth a visit. Like the shopkeeper, you’re bound to see a book—nay, many books—that you’ve never seen before. You may find an edition of a literary classic with that marvellous quality, or a contemporary author you’ve never seen another bookstore carry.

Whatever it is you might be searching for, why don’t you stay a while? Be sure to ask about the wallpaper, too. You’ll get a fascinating story about the McKernan community and the streetcar by which it was served.

Image credits: Michael Hingston

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