When it comes to books, ignore Buy Nothing Day

Ah, books. Which brings me to the Little Sister's Classics series. LilSis is the book shop in Vancouver that sells lots of sex aids and videos in order to survive -- making it no different than Indigo, really, with its own ever-expanding collection of knick-knacks and bottled water and stationery. Except that LilSis one of a rapidly disappearing breed of queer haven.

LilSis is best known to those From Away as the shop whose employees keep poking at the eyes of Canada Customs agents and their political overseers. Because those with a little bit of power can't stop staring at queer sex -- and deciding that no one else should be allowed to see it.

What? You thought border censorship was over after the Supreme Court of Canada decision in 2000? Not. Shipments to Little Sister's are still regularly stopped, and SM/bondage comic books and a couple of gay erotic fiction collections have been seized. And there's a great investigative report on a nasty little policing campaign against the store here (thank you, access-to-information laws that actually work).

And so Little Sister's is going to court all over again.

This is costing megabucks. Support Little Sister's by purchasing the Classics. We're talking "historic" filth -- I mean, heartwarming stories of queer community.

There's Isabel Miller's 1969 "Patience & Sarah." And John Preston's 1983 "Franny, the Queen of Provincetown." Plus "Song of the Loon" by Richard Amory. And numero uno is Jane Rule's 1977 "The Young in One Another's Arms."

Rule is now 74, living on an island in British Columbia. But she still speaks out periodically (against gay marriage, for example), and is a true Canadian treasure (even if not listed in the top 100 tomes).

Buy these Little Sister's books.