On the afternoon of September 9th, I ventured off to East City to arguably my favourite place to shoot the shit—Take Cover Books (TCB)—for their grand opening.

Take Cover Books is an independent bookstore located in Peterborough’s East City and is owned and managed by two brothers, Sean and Andrew Fitzpatrick. Take Cover previously operated solely as an online independent bookstore, which launched in September of last year. Less than a year later, the Fitzpatrick brothers moved their business in person, holding a grand opening on September 9th to officially celebrate their open doors. 

The grand opening was bustling with shoppers both new and old, curious window gazers, and a book signing by author Kerry Clare. 

Sean and Andrew are both musicians who moved from Toronto to Peterborough after the initial wave of the pandemic in search of a change. After spitballing ideas for what sort of direction would seem fitting, they relayed to me during our interview that their backgrounds as record and book collectors were the perfect foundation to build their online bookshop.

A physical location was always the goal for the brothers and soon Peterborough became the obvious choice to set up shop. East City quickly presented the perfect blend of practicality and connection with its close proximity to downtown and the neighbourhood’s unique vibe. 

“This is a cool little street,” Andrew told me.

When I arrived in East City on the afternoon of the opening, Sean asked if I had finished my last purchase, Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval which—shamefully—I admitted to not yet having started. This brings me to a comment Sean made which undeniably sets the tone for TCB as more than a place to simply buy a book: “Staff picks mean something when you can actually meet the staff,” Sean stated to me after conversing with my friend David about their mutual love for the notorious podcast Blowback. The beauty of small bookstores is building this relationship with the staff and being remembered as a reader, rather than just another customer.

As any obsessive reader will tell you, buying books and reading books are two separate hobbies entirely. Being the prolific collector of books that I am, I have become accustomed to a certain mutual understanding in most chain bookstores: don’t talk to me, and I won’t talk to you. To say that TCB is a refreshing change of pace would be an understatement. Having popped in several times prior to the official grand opening, TCB has an undeniably welcoming sense of belonging from the second you walk in the doors. Both Sean and Andrew are avid readers who understand how books are so much more than ink and paper. 

Books bring communities together—a fact of life that has and continues to be the foundation of all great places of learning. In the days following the grand opening, which was packed full of smiling faces and books flying off the shelves, I returned to my favourite corner of East City to talk to the brothers about how they see their store as creating and maintaining a community of readers in Peterborough.

Arthur: Can you touch on the intention behind making your bookstore more than just a bookstore with film clubs and live readings?

Andrew: Coming from DIY music organizing, the idea of community was really important to us and was something we both really miss about not being a part of that community anymore. We realized that we can use this space to not only build it but also provide space for other people to expand or build their own communities here. That's a pretty lucky spot for us to be in.

Sean: We also want to support local authors and stuff like that. Especially younger authors, we’re really interested in helping them out. Just limiting the amount of competition and barriers that exist for people to express themselves I think is one of the things that I don't know, we're trying to improve because we toured a bunch as a band and increasingly as time went on, it was harder and harder to find venues to play, it was harder and harder to find places that would like to stick their neck out for you or even just believe that you were something worth investing in. I think those places are really important—that kind of thing is great when you find it, and it’s increasingly rare.

‍Arthur: Can you speak on your experience on how books bring community together?

Sean: Yeah, totally. I just think reading in general, builds empathy, right? I think that's a cliche at this point. But that idea of embodying another consciousness while you're reading it, you know, while inserting your own imagination, you're building this kind of social skill, even if trying to socialize immediately after reading can be very difficult. 

(Here I interjected to confirm Sean’s statement, as I had just finished reading All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews days prior and was, in fact, not doing okay.) 

Sean continues: But in terms of bookstores, and all that, I find, for me, if somebody even comes to the counter carrying like, three or four books, or something that I specifically chose, then it's just nice to be like, “oh, those are great” or, “how did you find out about those?” It’s a very quick way to have a conversation with a stranger. And then, you know, you get to know their name, you can talk to them, and they'll talk to each other. I mean, that already exists. Right? Like so many people come in, and then another person will come in, and they'll know each other. But also to have a space where that can happen, you can also immediately have something to talk about, like I love that. I love that about record stores and bookstores and video stores (R.I.P).

Andrew: There's something about books that are a very active thing. It's not to say it is more important than movies or music or podcasts or radio, but while doing those other three things you can still be on your phone without looking and still kind of be following along. If you start looking at your phone while reading the book, you have to stop reading the book, right? And I feel like for people who engage in reading as a pastime, it takes a certain type of person to really get into that culture.

Sean: But for the record, we’re not blaming anyone who can read and have their phone out.

‍Andrew: Yeah, if you can do that, all the more power to you. But I mean, I think that is also a kind of in the same way that records, movies, whatever your interests are that builds community. There's something about readers, who they are, they're into finding other people and they're like, “Oh, what are you reading right now?” “What's on your TBR?” “What's on your bedside table? Like, how big is it?”

Sean: Yeah, and we currently live in a space where you're constantly encouraged to build your personal brand and not really focus on the thing you're doing right—everything has to be an addition to your CV. Reading, and particularly non-utilitarian activities purely for your mind, will improve things but in terms of that transactional part of living right now, reading is peaceful and you can do it for yourself, and it is something that I've had that has really benefited my mental health.

Andrew: I feel the same way. It’s been very beneficial and it’s hilarious you say that because it’s the most selfish activity humans can do.

Sean: What I mean is like, we live in a time when you're kind of encouraged to be looking at your phone, there's so much stimulation, and you're not really engaging. But like with a book, somebody can walk up to you and actually read it—you probably shouldn't do that—but like, somebody can ask you, and it's a little bit easier to break away from that. Like, I just think it's something people are passionate about. Nobody's passionate about what they read on their phone, or maybe they are and in that case, I'm just usually enraged by what I see.

Andrew: I don’t really think we’re doing a lot of the work. I think that people are genuinely passionate about this stuff, and people are coming because they’re interested in finding new things to look at. You know, we fill the room with stuff and we tell people it’s here but a lot of the interest is very community based—it doesn’t take a lot to convince someone to open the door.

Arthur: What are your hopes for the future of Take Cover?

Andrew: It's funny because when you open something, a lot of the enthusiasm is because you're new. I think that my hope for it would be that we can sustain this level of enthusiasm and community building, and be able to hire people. Being an employer is a goal of ours, we want this to be a place that also supports the community that we operate in, and also in a position where we’re listening to people serving the community that comes to us for the space and evolving our events. 

Sean: Just kind of being able to sustain this, but also do some neat things like film club would be great. Being able to do things where, you know, we could do like a film and TV club and do it the same way that we do it with our Take Cover reading club, we have fairly modest goals. And the other thing is like, we are not the idea engine room. So if people have ideas, things they want to do, things they want to promote, events they want to do, yeah, like, reach out. That helps us also realize what's possible, that's a big part of it, and students are generally very enthusiastic about the things that they are involved in. Yeah, so don't be shy. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.