David Birkan
Description
An interview with David Birkan for the Lillian H. Smith Story Project.
Creator
Birkan, David
Contributor
Wong, Christina
Format
MP3
Date Created
August 5, 2015
Spatial Coverage
Downtown (Toronto, Ont.)
Kensington-Chinatown (Toronto, Ont.)
University (Toronto, Ont.)
Rights Holder
Wong, Christina
Interviewer
Wong, Christina
Interviewee
Birkan, David
Location
Lillian H. Smith Branch
Transcription
00:00 Speaker 1: The thing I would like to start with is the word "magic".
00:04 Speaker 2: Magic! Okay.
00:05 S1: Magic. 'Cause that's when... That's what it felt like when I first went to the library, specifically Boys and Girls House. And this was, I guess, after grade one when I first started to learn to read. And I discovered there was more than just Dick and Jane books. And so my mother would take me once a week, and sometimes the school would... Class would go once a week. And we'd go and they'd read stories to us at a certain time. And those stories were really, really fascinating. I remember one was from Emil and the Detectives, which I picked up again a couple of years ago, but it didn't have that enchantment. So when I was older, I was able to go on my own. And I would go once a week, especially the summer, and I'd get a stack of books. And I'd read them well before the time to bring them back. I think that was three weeks then. And so I became a devotee of the library. And [01:14] ____ a certain level of books...
01:17 S2: Oh, that's so nice!
01:18 S1: Yeah, and I really enjoyed it. And then finally, I think in about grade eight, we were allowed to go to the senior library.
01:28 S2: Oh, there's a...
01:30 S1: There used to be two, yes. At the Boys and Girls House and there was a senior library.
01:34 S2: Okay.
01:35 S1: And there I found a whole bunch of new things that I found really, really exciting. And then I read a little bit about Sigmund Freud, for example.
01:47 S2: Alright, okay.
01:47 S1: And then, I came across a whole set of his works.
01:50 S2: A whole section!
01:51 S1: Yeah, so I took all the books. I read through them even though I didn't understand very much, but I read them because I could. And that sort of sealed off my library career.
02:05 S2: So are you a librarian? Or what...
02:08 S1: No, no.
02:09 S2: You just have the love for the library?
02:11 S1: I have the love for books, but I love the library too.
02:13 S2: Yes.
02:16 S1: I stopped going to the library, I think, after college. 'Cause I... During college I went there just for reference books and to do essays. And that was no fun. And then by the end of college, bookstores had started to pop up all over and had shiny new books and the library still smelled like old books. Some of the new library... Some of the new book stores even had... Smelled coffee.
02:43 S2: Oh yes [chuckle]
02:43 S1: Which the libraries didn't have and still don't to this day. So at that time I was kinda weaned off going to the library, but the love of books that the library started in me, remained with me all my life.
03:01 S2: So this... Emery, we were talking on the phone, and you said... So you grew up by Boys and Girls House...
03:08 S1: Yeah.
03:08 S2: But you've actually never been into this building yet.
03:10 S1: No, no.
03:11 S2: Oh wow.
03:11 S1: This is my first time here.
03:12 S2: So what was your first impression?
03:14 S1: It's nice.
03:15 S2: Yeah.
03:15 S1: It looks like a library. Nothing special. Sometimes my wife and I will drop into the Bathurst Heights Library.
03:23 S2: Oh right, oh so you live quite a bit...
03:25 S1: Now I do. But before, I used to live just a little...
03:29 S2: Just around the corner.
03:30 S1: West of the [03:30] ____. And this library looks pretty well the same.
03:37 S2: What made Boys and Girls House special for you?
03:40 S1: I think it was the librarians would read to us.
03:44 S2: Oh, so they had like a story time?
03:46 S1: Yeah, they had a story time and we'd all sit cross-legged all around. And they'd start reading a book. I think for the classes from school.
03:55 S2: Right, yes.
03:57 S1: So they read for us and they were continuing the next time we came.
04:01 S2: Right, must have kept you in suspense sometimes. [laughter]
04:05 S1: Yeah, it was. The thing was when it was time for the next instalment, they would sort of backtrack from other pages.
04:14 S2: Oh yes, yes.
04:14 S1: Just to keep us up to speed. And I found that annoying 'cause I remembered what...
[laughter]
04:19 S1: Plus the fact of getting out of the classroom.
04:23 S2: Oh yeah.
04:24 S1: That was a great time.
04:25 S2: It was always nice going on little field trips when you're a kid.
04:29 S1: Yeah. So, again, that contributed to the magic of the whole place.
04:36 S2: Yeah, right, right.
04:36 S1: The teachers reading and all these stories like Aladdin. I hadn't ever heard of these things until I came to the library. They didn't mention them in school. Never. Not since then. Never. Not college.
04:52 S2: So it opened up this whole world.
04:53 S1: Yeah, yeah.
04:55 S2: It's like, exactly how you said. It's a very magical place.
05:00 S1: Yeah, so going to the Boys and Girls House was the first magical place for me.
05:05 S2: That's such a nice thing to hear.
05:08 S1: Yeah. No, it's true. That's why I'm here, to convey the sense of magic.
05:13 S2: Yeah. And how was the neighbourhood like when you were growing up? Has it changed? Well, I'm sure it's changed.
05:20 S1: Unmemorable.
05:21 S2: Unmemorable. So this wasn't one of the more memorable things for you.
05:24 S1: No, no, getting there was not half the fun. Being there was all the fun.
05:28 S2: Being there was all the fun. Do you remember any of the smells that were...
05:35 S1: Well, not at first, but later I got to smell musty books.
05:42 S2: [laughter] Oh yeah, yeah. That's...
05:46 S1: And all these things which, of course, I didn't smell when the shiny new bookstores opened.
05:50 S2: Of course! [laughter]
05:51 S1: Years later. No coffee smell, not then and not since, unless people come in and bring in their own coffee.
06:00 S2: Right. Right.
06:02 S1: Let's see. It was fairly quiet, too. People, the librarians went around going, "shh".
06:09 S2: Oh, yeah, not quite like that now.
06:12 S1: Okay. I last went to the library in this are was when the bookstore now was the Toronto Reference Library.
06:20 S2: Yes, someone earlier was talking about it.
06:21 S1: I can't really describe it to you 'cause I wasn't there too often.
06:26 S2: Right. Right.
06:26 S1: And then they moved to Young Street, so that was that.
06:31 S2: Did you have a favorite book when you were a kid?
06:37 S1: I liked the Madeline books and of course Emil and the Detectives. And later in the... I came across the Sherlock Holmes books which at first they had easy to read versions of it and then they had, the originals, some of them were very spooky, some of the stories of it. And I think I read some war books but not many and I was interested in weather at the time. I still love reading books on tornadoes and hurricanes 'cause we had a couple of near tornadoes here in the city at the time and I really got interested in it. It was really nice, as I was growing I wasn't looking anything in particular most of the time and I was always sure of discovering something at the library.
07:34 S2: Oh, that's so nice. Yeah.
07:36 S1: And just continuing to expand my mind.
07:39 S2: Yeah, especially when you're a kid even now you'd... Well you said you don't go to the library too often now?
07:44 S1: That's right.
07:46 S2: But just the idea that that's what the library, the role of the library for you has been.
07:52 S1: Yeah, and I really should go. No, really because my wife and I have both been buying books for years and they kind of pile up.
08:00 S2: Right, well it's nice to support that, too.
08:01 S1: Yeah, but they pile up and in hindsight it would have been better just to go to the library.
08:07 S2: Oh yeah.
08:09 S1: Take it back and not take up so much space.
08:09 S2: Yeah. You must have an impressive collection.
08:17 S1: Well, it is. It's more... It's very rag tag. We haven't organized it but there's lots of books there.
08:25 S2: Which library do you live near now?
08:29 S1: I live near the Northview Heights Library.
08:33 S2: Oh, okay.
08:34 S1: At Finch. That's the closest one, Finch.
08:36 S2: Oh, wow so you trekked quite a bit.
08:37 S1: Yes. Yes we have. Yeah.
08:39 S2: Oh, well thank you for coming all the way here.
08:41 S1: No, no, no. I really felt impelled to come because this is what goes on, so when... School away from school and all voluntary and all engrossing and find out that there's more books than just Dick and Jane and Farmer Brown and all that stuff.
09:03 S2: It's such a whole new world.
09:04 S1: Yeah.
09:05 S2: And you just, if you allow yourself to just be immersed in it.
09:08 S1: Yeah. And I understand there's a lot of it now online. I haven't been that keen online.
09:14 S2: Me neither. I like that idea of just turning that page or even with newspapers I prefer...
09:24 S1: Crinkle, crinkle.
09:25 S2: Yes, instead of this like...
09:28 S1: Yeah.
09:29 S2: I don't know.
09:32 S1: I remember when we went as a class we would have to wait before the librarian would open the door, the door to the reading room where she would read to us, so we waited the class huddling against each other until the door was opened and we all rushed in and ran and sat down for our [09:53] ____...
09:55 S2: Oh, that would have been so nice.
09:57 S1: Yeah. It was very, very nice.
09:57 S2: I can't picture where that area is. Was it right when you walked in?
10:03 S1: All I remember is we walked in and we turned left and there's a hall there.
10:11 S2: Would you want to draw what you remember?
10:14 S1: I can't remember enough. The memory is not that good now.
10:18 S2: Okay. Was there anything else you wanted to add?
10:21 S1: I think, well, yeah. I just wanted to mention that we seem to be now in a very critical time for book technology in that this 500 year, almost 600 years of book making has just about gone. That is a regret, but on the other hand I do appreciate the library about going in and starting me off on all kinds of really imaginative journeys.
10:58 S2: And your love of books.
11:00 S1: Yeah, my love of books.
11:00 S2: Yeah.
11:04 S1: I guess I should add one more thing about the e-books as opposed to regular books, is I read a lot and I'm Orthodox Jewish so on a Sabbath we can't use electronic stuff, so I still even if I did read e-books all week I would still have to have recourse to physical books.
11:30 S2: Physical books. Yeah.
11:31 S1: Yeah that don't involve turning on lights or turning on power or turning on anything. Although that goes back to a basic I guess, commandment not to put on, not to light a fire on the Sabbath, so that's taken to mean a fire in any manner, in any possible way, including powering on a device.
11:54 S2: Right. Wow.
11:56 S1: So can't do that. So I just pick up a book.
12:01 S2: I think that should be in everybody's [laughter] daily ritual... Not daily rituals.
12:07 S1: Yeah, well, at least once a week.
12:08 S2: Yeah.
12:09 S1: Yeah, pick up that book. I guess that's about it, that's...
12:12 S2: Yeah.
12:13 S1: I said my piece.
12:14 S2: Yeah, thank you so much.
12:16 S1: Okay.
00:04 Speaker 2: Magic! Okay.
00:05 S1: Magic. 'Cause that's when... That's what it felt like when I first went to the library, specifically Boys and Girls House. And this was, I guess, after grade one when I first started to learn to read. And I discovered there was more than just Dick and Jane books. And so my mother would take me once a week, and sometimes the school would... Class would go once a week. And we'd go and they'd read stories to us at a certain time. And those stories were really, really fascinating. I remember one was from Emil and the Detectives, which I picked up again a couple of years ago, but it didn't have that enchantment. So when I was older, I was able to go on my own. And I would go once a week, especially the summer, and I'd get a stack of books. And I'd read them well before the time to bring them back. I think that was three weeks then. And so I became a devotee of the library. And [01:14] ____ a certain level of books...
01:17 S2: Oh, that's so nice!
01:18 S1: Yeah, and I really enjoyed it. And then finally, I think in about grade eight, we were allowed to go to the senior library.
01:28 S2: Oh, there's a...
01:30 S1: There used to be two, yes. At the Boys and Girls House and there was a senior library.
01:34 S2: Okay.
01:35 S1: And there I found a whole bunch of new things that I found really, really exciting. And then I read a little bit about Sigmund Freud, for example.
01:47 S2: Alright, okay.
01:47 S1: And then, I came across a whole set of his works.
01:50 S2: A whole section!
01:51 S1: Yeah, so I took all the books. I read through them even though I didn't understand very much, but I read them because I could. And that sort of sealed off my library career.
02:05 S2: So are you a librarian? Or what...
02:08 S1: No, no.
02:09 S2: You just have the love for the library?
02:11 S1: I have the love for books, but I love the library too.
02:13 S2: Yes.
02:16 S1: I stopped going to the library, I think, after college. 'Cause I... During college I went there just for reference books and to do essays. And that was no fun. And then by the end of college, bookstores had started to pop up all over and had shiny new books and the library still smelled like old books. Some of the new library... Some of the new book stores even had... Smelled coffee.
02:43 S2: Oh yes [chuckle]
02:43 S1: Which the libraries didn't have and still don't to this day. So at that time I was kinda weaned off going to the library, but the love of books that the library started in me, remained with me all my life.
03:01 S2: So this... Emery, we were talking on the phone, and you said... So you grew up by Boys and Girls House...
03:08 S1: Yeah.
03:08 S2: But you've actually never been into this building yet.
03:10 S1: No, no.
03:11 S2: Oh wow.
03:11 S1: This is my first time here.
03:12 S2: So what was your first impression?
03:14 S1: It's nice.
03:15 S2: Yeah.
03:15 S1: It looks like a library. Nothing special. Sometimes my wife and I will drop into the Bathurst Heights Library.
03:23 S2: Oh right, oh so you live quite a bit...
03:25 S1: Now I do. But before, I used to live just a little...
03:29 S2: Just around the corner.
03:30 S1: West of the [03:30] ____. And this library looks pretty well the same.
03:37 S2: What made Boys and Girls House special for you?
03:40 S1: I think it was the librarians would read to us.
03:44 S2: Oh, so they had like a story time?
03:46 S1: Yeah, they had a story time and we'd all sit cross-legged all around. And they'd start reading a book. I think for the classes from school.
03:55 S2: Right, yes.
03:57 S1: So they read for us and they were continuing the next time we came.
04:01 S2: Right, must have kept you in suspense sometimes. [laughter]
04:05 S1: Yeah, it was. The thing was when it was time for the next instalment, they would sort of backtrack from other pages.
04:14 S2: Oh yes, yes.
04:14 S1: Just to keep us up to speed. And I found that annoying 'cause I remembered what...
[laughter]
04:19 S1: Plus the fact of getting out of the classroom.
04:23 S2: Oh yeah.
04:24 S1: That was a great time.
04:25 S2: It was always nice going on little field trips when you're a kid.
04:29 S1: Yeah. So, again, that contributed to the magic of the whole place.
04:36 S2: Yeah, right, right.
04:36 S1: The teachers reading and all these stories like Aladdin. I hadn't ever heard of these things until I came to the library. They didn't mention them in school. Never. Not since then. Never. Not college.
04:52 S2: So it opened up this whole world.
04:53 S1: Yeah, yeah.
04:55 S2: It's like, exactly how you said. It's a very magical place.
05:00 S1: Yeah, so going to the Boys and Girls House was the first magical place for me.
05:05 S2: That's such a nice thing to hear.
05:08 S1: Yeah. No, it's true. That's why I'm here, to convey the sense of magic.
05:13 S2: Yeah. And how was the neighbourhood like when you were growing up? Has it changed? Well, I'm sure it's changed.
05:20 S1: Unmemorable.
05:21 S2: Unmemorable. So this wasn't one of the more memorable things for you.
05:24 S1: No, no, getting there was not half the fun. Being there was all the fun.
05:28 S2: Being there was all the fun. Do you remember any of the smells that were...
05:35 S1: Well, not at first, but later I got to smell musty books.
05:42 S2: [laughter] Oh yeah, yeah. That's...
05:46 S1: And all these things which, of course, I didn't smell when the shiny new bookstores opened.
05:50 S2: Of course! [laughter]
05:51 S1: Years later. No coffee smell, not then and not since, unless people come in and bring in their own coffee.
06:00 S2: Right. Right.
06:02 S1: Let's see. It was fairly quiet, too. People, the librarians went around going, "shh".
06:09 S2: Oh, yeah, not quite like that now.
06:12 S1: Okay. I last went to the library in this are was when the bookstore now was the Toronto Reference Library.
06:20 S2: Yes, someone earlier was talking about it.
06:21 S1: I can't really describe it to you 'cause I wasn't there too often.
06:26 S2: Right. Right.
06:26 S1: And then they moved to Young Street, so that was that.
06:31 S2: Did you have a favorite book when you were a kid?
06:37 S1: I liked the Madeline books and of course Emil and the Detectives. And later in the... I came across the Sherlock Holmes books which at first they had easy to read versions of it and then they had, the originals, some of them were very spooky, some of the stories of it. And I think I read some war books but not many and I was interested in weather at the time. I still love reading books on tornadoes and hurricanes 'cause we had a couple of near tornadoes here in the city at the time and I really got interested in it. It was really nice, as I was growing I wasn't looking anything in particular most of the time and I was always sure of discovering something at the library.
07:34 S2: Oh, that's so nice. Yeah.
07:36 S1: And just continuing to expand my mind.
07:39 S2: Yeah, especially when you're a kid even now you'd... Well you said you don't go to the library too often now?
07:44 S1: That's right.
07:46 S2: But just the idea that that's what the library, the role of the library for you has been.
07:52 S1: Yeah, and I really should go. No, really because my wife and I have both been buying books for years and they kind of pile up.
08:00 S2: Right, well it's nice to support that, too.
08:01 S1: Yeah, but they pile up and in hindsight it would have been better just to go to the library.
08:07 S2: Oh yeah.
08:09 S1: Take it back and not take up so much space.
08:09 S2: Yeah. You must have an impressive collection.
08:17 S1: Well, it is. It's more... It's very rag tag. We haven't organized it but there's lots of books there.
08:25 S2: Which library do you live near now?
08:29 S1: I live near the Northview Heights Library.
08:33 S2: Oh, okay.
08:34 S1: At Finch. That's the closest one, Finch.
08:36 S2: Oh, wow so you trekked quite a bit.
08:37 S1: Yes. Yes we have. Yeah.
08:39 S2: Oh, well thank you for coming all the way here.
08:41 S1: No, no, no. I really felt impelled to come because this is what goes on, so when... School away from school and all voluntary and all engrossing and find out that there's more books than just Dick and Jane and Farmer Brown and all that stuff.
09:03 S2: It's such a whole new world.
09:04 S1: Yeah.
09:05 S2: And you just, if you allow yourself to just be immersed in it.
09:08 S1: Yeah. And I understand there's a lot of it now online. I haven't been that keen online.
09:14 S2: Me neither. I like that idea of just turning that page or even with newspapers I prefer...
09:24 S1: Crinkle, crinkle.
09:25 S2: Yes, instead of this like...
09:28 S1: Yeah.
09:29 S2: I don't know.
09:32 S1: I remember when we went as a class we would have to wait before the librarian would open the door, the door to the reading room where she would read to us, so we waited the class huddling against each other until the door was opened and we all rushed in and ran and sat down for our [09:53] ____...
09:55 S2: Oh, that would have been so nice.
09:57 S1: Yeah. It was very, very nice.
09:57 S2: I can't picture where that area is. Was it right when you walked in?
10:03 S1: All I remember is we walked in and we turned left and there's a hall there.
10:11 S2: Would you want to draw what you remember?
10:14 S1: I can't remember enough. The memory is not that good now.
10:18 S2: Okay. Was there anything else you wanted to add?
10:21 S1: I think, well, yeah. I just wanted to mention that we seem to be now in a very critical time for book technology in that this 500 year, almost 600 years of book making has just about gone. That is a regret, but on the other hand I do appreciate the library about going in and starting me off on all kinds of really imaginative journeys.
10:58 S2: And your love of books.
11:00 S1: Yeah, my love of books.
11:00 S2: Yeah.
11:04 S1: I guess I should add one more thing about the e-books as opposed to regular books, is I read a lot and I'm Orthodox Jewish so on a Sabbath we can't use electronic stuff, so I still even if I did read e-books all week I would still have to have recourse to physical books.
11:30 S2: Physical books. Yeah.
11:31 S1: Yeah that don't involve turning on lights or turning on power or turning on anything. Although that goes back to a basic I guess, commandment not to put on, not to light a fire on the Sabbath, so that's taken to mean a fire in any manner, in any possible way, including powering on a device.
11:54 S2: Right. Wow.
11:56 S1: So can't do that. So I just pick up a book.
12:01 S2: I think that should be in everybody's [laughter] daily ritual... Not daily rituals.
12:07 S1: Yeah, well, at least once a week.
12:08 S2: Yeah.
12:09 S1: Yeah, pick up that book. I guess that's about it, that's...
12:12 S2: Yeah.
12:13 S1: I said my piece.
12:14 S2: Yeah, thank you so much.
12:16 S1: Okay.
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Citation
Birkan, David, “David Birkan,” TPL Virtual Exhibits, accessed April 27, 2024, http://omeka.tplcs.ca/virtual-exhibits/items/show/1789.