Book Shopping with Guy Vanderhaeghe

Walking into a bookstore during the holiday season can be an intimidating experience.

The shelves are stocked with award winners and best sellers. There are staff picks to help those searching for a Christmas gift. And then there are sections full of DVDs, music and every knick-knack you can imagine.

So at this time of year, it helps to have someone guide you through a store and share their expertise. Especially when that guide happens to be an award-winningauthor.

Saskatchewan's Guy Vanderhaeghe, whose latest short story collectionDaddy Leninearned him a Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction this year, was kind enough to meet me at Saskatoon's McNally Robinson this week.

We spent an hour wandering through the store looking at books, magazines and even tarot cards. Here are five things I learned about Guy Vanderhaeghe by book shopping with him.

Vanderhaeghe loves prairie authors

The first place Vanderhaeghe goes to in McNallys is the prairie writers and regional interest section. He listed several Saskatchewan authors that he enjoys. Sharon Butala, Elizabeth Philips, Connie Gault and Dianne Warren were authors he picked out right away who released new novels in 2015. Vanderhaeghe said that for a long time, prairie writers have dealt with the stereotype of only being able to write about landscapes and rural settings.

"That's still true, but I think a younger generation of writers who didn't arise in small towns or rural communities are starting to write a slightly different type of urban fiction."

It's ok to judge a book by its you-know-what

Vanderhaeghe gave a sheepish smile when I asked if he judges books by their covers. "To be absolutely frank, yes I do."

He went on to explain that an interesting or provocative cover is the first step in getting his attention. Then he will pick it up and read the first few pages. Vanderhaeghe was intrigued by Erna Buffie's Let Us Be True and Donna Besel's Lessons From A Nude Man because of their respective covers.

"There are certain books that announce what they're about and what sort of genre that they fall into by the covers."

Vanderhaeghe is working on a new novel

After spending time in the prairie writers and biography sections, we made our way to the Canadian History section of the store. Vanderhaeghe has a Mastersin History so he loves immersing himself in a particular historical place and time. He was explaining why historical research is so important in his writing when he dropped this lovely nugget of information that should excite fans.

"Right now, and I don't know if it will see the light of day, but I've just made a beginning on it. The novel that I'm writing is set in the 1930s shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. So I'm doing a lot of reading in those areas and some of that reading is political."

Poetry deserves more attention

About a half-hour into our conversation, Vanderhaeghe took me to a quiet place in the store that he wished was featured more prominently. The poetry section. It is tucked away in the back of McNally Robinson and has an eerie calmness to it. He explainedat this time of year, when people are in the mood for self-reflection, reading poetry can be a wonderful way to tap into emotions that short stories and novels simply can't evoke.

"Most readers are more interested in narrative than they are in the sound of words and how words play off of one another. How words can express what is almost inexpressible in terms of image and the play of words. I think that poetry demands more of a reader often."

Proud of his work

The last stop on our bookstore tour was a place Vanderhaeghe had hoped we would skip over. The rather prominent display of his latest work, Daddy Lenin. "You're a cruel man," he joked as we walked over to the display.

Vanderhaeghe was happy the bookwas featured and jokedthat it sure beats the alternative. But then he talked in more general terms about how he feels seeing his books on store shelves.

"It's a bit like seeing your life laid out in front of you. If I move five or six yards down the shelf, I can see virtually every book I've written, which reminds me how old I am. It makes me remember writing those books. But obviously, every writer has to be glad to see their books in a bookstore, and particularly grateful if the book is prominently displayed. So I actually feel pretty damn good about it."