Read This is a Scout column that details book selections by authorities, luminaries, institutions, and locals that share deep affections for the written word. This week, we asked Kim Koch and Rod Clarke of Paper Hound, one of our favourite bookstores (334 West Pender at Homer). Selling new, used, and rare books, from classic to eccentric, with a strong focus on literature, poetry, philosophy and the arts, they see their shop as a street-level expression of Vancouver as a city of letters and lectors: brick and mortar, ink and paper. Say hi for us the next time you go in, but in the meantime, read this…

1 | Wild Teas, Coffees and Cordials by Hilary Stewart (Douglas & McIntyre, 1981)
Here at The ‘Hound, drinking very strong coffee is a twice-daily ritual that will never be supplanted by chickory or bedstraw facsimiles – but Hilary Stewart’s perfect little guide to wilderness drinks of the Pacific Northwest is a pleasure to read, whether or not you are possessed of the patience and aptitude to gather, roast and grind your own juniper berries for an aromatic tea. Simple and informative, with ethnobotany notes, preparation tips, and charmingly detailed illustrations, this is a necessary reference for local imbibers – whether your outdoorsiness takes you hiking high above the timberline for refreshing Mountain Sorrel-ade, or just down an East Van alleyway for Scotch Broom coffee and Blackberry Cordial. And can anyone direct us to a garden with an ornamental sumac tree, where a few seed-cones won’t be missed? Crushed, steeped, sugared and iced, it apparently makes a delicious pink lemonade…

2 | David McIntosh’s Terroir Tour of British Columbia (Battery Opera Books, 2016).
A totally engrossing investigation into the concept of terroir as it relates to the colonial landscape, performance artist/somellier David McIntosh looks at the ugly and racist economic history of BC’s extraction industry through the genuinely enthusiastic lens of a wine buff, moving from vineyard to vineyard, framing personal narratives of resource workers, travel notes and family history between frothy promotional winery literature and blackly funny tasting notes. Prose poetry meets local history meets booze. “Eccentric composition but compulsively readable with acrid undertones”: my fake somellier-speak review, were it bottled instead of bound.

3 | Mud Pies and Other Recipes by Marjorie Winslow, illustrated by Erik Blegvad (First published in 1959. Illustration copyright 1963. NYRB Children’s Collection, 2010)
This is a free spirited, mildly subversive little cook book for dolls. As Marjorie Winslow admits in her foreword, “Doll cookery is not a very exacting art. If a recipe calls for a cupful of something, you can use a measuring cup or a teacup or a buttercup.” These recipes are meant to be enjoyed by dolls using utensils and ingredients made from stuff in your yard. Make the ever-popular backyard staple, Mud Pie with dirt and puddle, hose water will do in a pinch. Serve Birch Bark Quicksandwiches with Pencil Sharpener Pudding and Pine Needle Tea. The minutely observed, densely crosshatched drawings are the work of the late Danish-born illustrator, and Paper Hound favourite, Erik Blegvad.

4 | Origami Architecture: American Houses by Masahiro Chatani (Kodansha, 1988)
Can you sit slightly hunched at a desk for hours? Of course you can (and do!) and that prepares you well for your new summer hobby of origami architecture. Assuming that familiar posture, but unplugged and equipped with only a single sheet of card paper and blade, create 3-D representations of notable buildings: score, fold, slice, repeat. It’s an addictive practice of rendering complex architectural concepts into simple miniature feats of paper engineering. If you find the play of light and shadow on sharply angled white paper to be a beautiful and compelling thing to behold, welcome to your new obsession (as a long-time devotee of Masahiro Chatani’s pop-up designs, my windowsills are adorned with tiny representations of colonial manors, so please read this not only as a book endorsement but also as a sincere recommendation for a cheap-though-not-exactly-easy style of interior decoration).

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