What kind of people go to bookstores in the age of Amazon?
JS: Our customer is someone who appreciates the feeling of the bookstore, being there and talking to our staff. People who come into the Queen Street store want to talk to Amanda because they know what she likes, or to Kyle, who suggests the craziest books for any occasion. The prettiness of the stores helps, and people love the events, which are things you don’t get on-line.

What kind of people open a bookstore in the age of Amazon?
JS: We heard a lot of “crazy” when we first opened, and then we heard a lot of “brave.” Samara and I met while doing our doctorates in Canadian literature [at U of T]. It started with a little bit of, “We love books, let’s open a bookstore!” which is so naïve and ridiculous.

Type is a small bookstore for sophisticated readers. What makes you think it can succeed when so many indies have failed?
SW: Within the past few years, there’s been a return to the local— the slow food movement and that kind of thing. People are appreciating their own communities and being able to walk to their essential services. I happen to think books are an essential service.

What have been your best-selling books?
JS: The Mitfords flies off the shelf up in Forest Hill. We sell a lot of quirky titles on Queen Street. People come in regularly for McSweeney’s. We always have a waiting list.

What kind of relationship do the stores have with neighbourhood authors?
JS: When we started selling one local author’s book, he sent all of his friends in to buy it. That was amazing.

Are there any popular books you refuse to carry?
JS: Our customers hate the aesthetics of a movie tie-in cover.
SW: We’ll special order anything. We have a section in our Queen West store called Guilty Pleasures, which is a small shelf with some of the mass-market books, like the Tom Cruise biography— no one’s bought it, but it’s on the shelf.

Type, 503 Danforth Ave., 416-405-8973; plus two other GTA locations.