Alt bibliophilia

Concordia Co-op Bookstore attracts
the non-Chapters crowd, including
the pierced and the odd celeb

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Larissa Dutil aka the Lit Pimp

Age: 27

Occupation: Manager of Concordia Co-op Bookstore

Bio: This über-energetic NDG gal arrived here at the tender age of 17 from suburban Jonquière to both attend CEGEP and escape life up in the Saguenay shortly after watching her mother succumb to cancer. “I took care of her for her last three years. It takes awhile to feel better, you know, I still have issues and it’s been 10 years already.” The child of arty academics, Larissa eventually secured a scholarship to study photography at Concordia but temporarily dropped out for a year in 2002 “which has since turned into six years now,” to manage the Concordia Co-op Bookstore (co-opbookstore.ca) on Bishop, something she’s been doing ever since. That is, when she isn’t busy with her stand-up comedy routine, writing/illustrating her ’zine My Cat the Nudist, playing in her band Hulk-298 (www.myspace.com/hulk298 —“We’re just zany”) or devoting herself to political activism.

Does she ever sleep or just laze around her digs doing nothing but smoking dope? “I never take drugs. Truth is I’m actually just a boring person who spends a lot of time at work and at home.”

How a co-op differs from the next bookstore: Customers can become members of the co-op if they want, getting additional discounts on their purchases. “Anyone can shop here, of course, our stuff is already below the suggested retail price, you just get an even lower price if you’re a member.”

Something she’s been pursuing: Getting local celebs to become members for the prestige it brings. “I’m really just compiling a list of celebrities who’ve shopped here and asking if I can list them on our Web site.”

A few exciting local celebs who’ve been spotted shopping at the co-op: “Sarah Quinn from Tegan and Sara, Spencer from Wolf Parade, Jack Layton. Oh, and Win Butler from Arcade Fire came in once. I think we just kind of appeal to that kind of crowd. We’ve always specialized in women’s studies and queer, gender sexuality-type books. We also have a lot of small press stuff, local stuff, stuff that’s a little more alternative that you won’t find in Chapters. Since l’Androgyne closed, there’s not really any other place in Montreal for these books.”

Something the Concordia book co-op does that most retailers do not: Celebrate “Buy Nothing Day” every year.

One pretty cool thing that happened to her at work: After commenting favourably on one heavily pierced customer’s piercings, “she went on about her clit being pierced, did I want to see it, and the next thing I knew her overalls were down, one leg was up above the counter and there it was, sure enough, her pierced clit. And it was crazy too, the store was open, anyone could have walked in.”

Something else she witnessed on the job: One regular customer’s glass eye suddenly popping out of her skull. “I was, like, what the hell? She didn’t even clean it first, just caught it and put it right back in her eye socket. I just rolled with it, I mean, what was I going to say?”

Musical preferences: Björk, Cibo Matto, Death Cab for Cutie.

Last book read: Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi.

Words of wisdom: “There’s no such thing as sanity. Just varying degrees of insanity.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net