Online ticket sales are closed, but you can still reserve (and it’s strongly recommended that you do) by emailing Lorraine dot murphy at gmail dot com. The Party is on Monday!!! The Shebeen has a capacity of only 60 people, so email and make sure you don’t get stuck out in the rain.

The Patient Succumbed to Amazonitis

Help us celebrate the slate but always-great Duthie Books, one of the world’s great independent booksellers. Sadly, after more than a half a century of informed and impassioned involvement in the literary world, Duthie’s last location will be shutting its doors at the end of February.

Come out and reminisce and help us celebrate a great bookstore and an intellectual institution. This is a chain invitation, so pass it along to all who may be interested, either by copying it into an email, pointing out this blog post, or by inviting people by using the link in the sidebar on Facebook. Half of the Vancouver literati used to work there, buy there, or just try to chat up people in the Cellar (not as filthy as it sounds, outsiders!).

We will be accepting book donations for charity! All books and $5 from each ticket sold will go to the Stratcona One to One Literacy program. Keep books alive!

There will be many surprises there. Don’t forget to wear black! Full mourning dress preferred. Celia Duthie will be our guest of honour.

If you have a collection of old Duthie Bookmarks, please bring them in. They’ll be photographed for posterity and the best one will win a prize.

Ex-Duthieites are encouraged to attend, moderately encouraged to get maudlin, strongly encouraged to get into storytelling, and absolutely COMPELLED to get into the whiskey.

Come out and share your reminiscences of the deceased, and toast the memory of a fine, upstanding bookstore who never turned away an intellectual in need of brain food or met an obscure literary magazine it didn’t like. God, I’m getting weepy just thinking about it!

Details: Since we expect this event to be packed, please reserve your ticket in advance via email.

7pm till late

Monday, February 15th, 2010

The Shebeen, behind the Irish Heather pub, 212 Carrall Street, Maple Tree Square, Gastown, Vancouver

$20 (proceeds to charity) includes a drink and dinner, with a choice of:

• entree salad
• vegetarian pasta
• bangers and mash
• fish and chips
• sleeve of domestic draft or glass of white or red wine

Dress code: funereal. Black beret and tame yet ominous raven optional.

N is for Neville, done in by ennui. Check out the Gashleycrumb Tinies series by photographer Christine Mladic