CarryOnBooks: Books! In Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport!
June 6, 2018
by Will Kemp
Launched on June 1st and running until the end of August, All Lit Up is excited to bring you 30 incredible CanLit titles at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport — in a vending machine! Yep, you read that right; in a few simple taps you can grab new, exciting literature to carry on — see what we did there? — to your flight. Or, you can even grab a book upon your arrival back into Toronto!
A view of the Earth from 35,000 above. If you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.
A generic in-flight rom-com. If you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.
Youtube compilations of cute dogs. If you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.
A new book from an exciting, innovative Canadian publisher. If you’ve read one you definitely haven’t read them all.
Our parent organization, the LPG, is beyond ecstatic to launch CarryOnBooks — a brand new way to read and buy some of the most exciting contemporary literature.
It was hard to keep such a literally huge secret, but now we can finally reveal this exciting book robot to you! A bookstore in a vending machine! In an airport! Full of Canadian literature! How exciting is that!
Partnering with the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and some of the best publishers going in Canada, All Lit Up brings a storefront right to the airport with CarryOnBooks — books! that are yours to keep! in a vending machine! Located right at the pre-security departures in Billy Bishop, CarryOnBooks features 20 incredible books from incredible Canadian publishers at any given time — 30 for the summer, with books rotating on a weekly basis. Have you ever used a vending machine? Well, then you understand how to use CarryOnBooks. It’s as easy as picking the book you want, beep-booping some numbers, and tapping your credit card. A minute later and you’re ready to board your flight with a new book!
And if you’re not in Toronto this summer or you can’t grab a book from the vending machine before your flight, you can of course grab it when you’re back safe and sound from your trip, or you can grab any and all of the books featured (and more!)
any time on All Lit Up.
Ranging in genre and style — from short stories “with a style reminiscient of Flannery O’Connor and Miriam Toews” (
The Whole Beautiful World) to plays “that feature young black women who suddenly find themselves navigating unfamiliar territory on their own” (
Up the Garden Path & The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search for God) to a collection of poetry that “reimagines Metis identity and belonging as contemporary sound poetry, weaving the personal and universal into a tapestry of short poetic luminosity” (
Witness I Am) — from authors new and old, all of these diverse books from diverse authors and publishers represent the incredible, important stories being told and being published by some of the best writers and publishers in Canada.
"It's important — you know? Really vital stuff; literature. So it's really cool to see something like this."
"...interesting — you're drawn to it immediately, and then you read the descriptions of the books and you just want to buy all of them."
"What a cool initiative to get books into people's hands."
"I appreciate the selection...you're shining a light on stuff that might be passed over at a big bookstore."
So thank you already to those who've been so supportive. And hey, who doesn’t love a good book haul pic? Especially when it comes from a vending machine.
Share your haul with us using the hashtag #CarryOnBooks.
So, after you’ve looked out the window, after you’ve turned off the movie, after you’ve binged Youtube videos, why not settle in with that book that caught your eye in the CarryOnBooks vending machine?
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