It is almost Christmas time and I know that one of the hardest people to buy a present for is myself. So I thought maybe I could help out some of you that may be buying presents for an urbanist that you know. While there are lots of great options for gifts for the city lover, a good book is hard to beat. I have included below a few of my favourite books that I have received as gifts or have picked up for myself but will be sure to make someone on your list happy.

Victoria - Secrets of the City or Victoria - The Unknown City

This first book on the list is perhaps the one I have owned the longest. The original version of Victoria - Secrets of the City was put out by Kevin Barefoot in 2000 and was updated by Ross Crockford in 2006. The books were written in conjunction with Monday magazine and thus had a significant amount of business listings in them. Being 20 and 14 years old makes most of those listings quite out of date. That said, even some of those are still fun to read if you have lived in Victoria since then, as it brings up places you had likely forgotten about. Both books do have some extensive portions that are evergreen though, with many stories about the history of the city; from Fan Tan Alley to the year that Victoria won the Stanley Cup. Both versions of the book are still available on Amazon here and here, but you can often find Crockford’s later version of the book at Munro’s. I highly recommend adding one or the other (or both) to the library of your urbanist. I am also hoping that at some point this book gets updated again for a new generation.

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Exploring Victoria’s Architecture

This wonderful book by Martin Segger and Douglas Franklin is one of my most prized books about Victoria. It is a tremendously comprehensive book, essentially an encyclopedia of Victoria’s most significant pieces of architecture. It doesn’t have every building in the city, but almost. If I am writing something about the city’s heritage this book is usually my first stop. For those wanting a riveting narrative, this may not be the best choice, but if you are shopping for someone that wants to find out about some of the hidden stories behind Victoria’s architecture, this book is a must have. Getting it is not super easy. On a rare occasion you can find one at Russell Books but more likely you will have to order one online. On Amazon it looks like you can still get a new one but it costs over 100 dollars. Still for a book like this giving a used copy is almost more meaningful than new.

City in Colour

This is likely the most recent book I have read on this list. Written by May Wong and released last year. As soon as it was released, I knew I wanted to read it. This book tells the stories of some of the less known Victoria pioneers that were not of white British heritage. While some of the stories will make you so angry, others like that of Isabella Ross are awe-inspiring. It does show a dark side of early Victoria and shows where we still need to grow as a city. I highly recommend this book for someone that really wants to understand a more comprehensive history of Victoria beyond the stories of Rattenbury and Emily Carr. Since it is a lot newer than the other two, it is likely available at almost any local bookstore. The publisher has links to buy it on their website here as well.

Aqua Vitae

This wonderful book by Glen Mofford came out three years ago. Aqua Vitae looks at the first establishments that sold alcohol in Victoria and covers that history up to prohibition in 1917. It tells a story that explains how the a lot of present day Victorian drinking establishments came to be, maybe not in name, but in practice. When I moved to Victoria as a young university student, one of the chief anachronisms was the sale of alcohol and the establsihments that did it. It always seemed like we were twenty years behind what other cities were doing. I think we have caught up a fair bit in the last ten years but overall we are still a very temperance focused city. Aqua Vitae clearly shows that it didn’t start out like that, but perhaps it was the headiness of those first years that led to the control we saw for the years following 1917. I am certain that there are at least a couple of used copies at Russell’s but you can likely find it new at Bolen or Munro’s as well.

Unbuilt Victoria

This book, more than any of the others on this list, speaks to me and my love of this city. Unbuilt Victoria by Dorothy Mindenhall looks at many of the buildings and plans for Victoria that never got built. There are a lot of near misses in here that I am happy didn’t end up on our streets but there are also a lot of lost opportunities. For those that have been reading the blog for awhile will know that I like to think that Victoria could do a lot better for itself than it does and this book is full of ideas that never saw the light of day. Unbuilt Victoria is fun to read straight through and hear about why some things never happened, but it is also fun to just flip around and enjoy the plans that fill its pages. This book originally came out in 2012 and it is a part of a series of unbuilt books from across Canada, though I have never looked at any of the others. I am sure used versions can be found around the city or you can order one from Amazon here.

Hopefully there is something on this list that you haven’t seen before and it gives you an idea for your Christmas shopping. I would also like to hear your best books on Victoria that maybe I am missing from this list or even my library. Leave a message below with your ideas!