Lit Snit

With its overstuffed couches and crackling fireplace, Nicholas Hoare Books has the feel of an English country house library—a tone set by the eponymous owner and embraced by long-time manager Ben McNally. But beneath that genteel veneer, the two have been less simpatico of late. The squabbling started when Hoare installed a CD section in the Toronto store a couple of years ago, along with a second manager to run it. McNally didn’t take kindly to easy listening music invading his orbit: “When you have to listen to Diana-fucking-Krall eight hours a day, it kinda wears you down.” When Nicholas Hoare announced he was putting his store up for sale, McNally rallied three partners and requested a price, but, he says, none was forthcoming. Hoare’s version is that there was just too much distance between what McNally would have paid and what he wanted to net. Things turned nasty after McNally objected to carrying American editions of books published in Canada. Hoare cut off McNally’s Toronto ordering privileges (though he claims it was unrelated to their disagreement). McNally finally walked in January (his backers in tow), and Ben McNally Books, at Bay and Richmond, is scheduled to open mid-July. It will be “a little less big, glossy picture book,” says McNally, “and more intellectual content.” And, of course, it won’t carry Diana Krall.—Shaun Smith