Bill Chamberlain has loved books from an early age.
“When I was 11, my mom and dad bought me C. S. Forester’s Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, a book which turned out to be a series about the old British Navy back in the 1700s,” said Chamberlain. “I loved the book.”
Chamberlain also loves collecting. He began collecting things in his teens.
“I’m a collector and my favourite aunt gave me the book On Collecting by Lord Eccles for Christmas and I still have that book.”
Chamberlain said the book stressed that one didn’t have to collect expensive items; collecting could involve anything one liked. “I had a collection of silver egg cups and alabaster eggs, and I still have about six eggs today.
“The other thing I collected was books. If I thought the book was interesting, I wanted to collect all of that author’s books that I could.”
And he shared that obsession with his community at Elliot Lake Retirement Living. The 82-year-old has donated more than 700 hard-covered novels to the library in the communal activity centre, which serves the residents of both 1 and 3 Washington Cres.
The donated books include almost complete collections of the works of David Baldacci, Harlen Coben, Ken Follett, John Grisham, Jack Higgins, Alistair Maclean, Stuart Woods and many others.
“When I moved up here (to Elliot Lake in 2019 from Toronto) I had 1,260 hard-covered books and I still have about 400 in my apartment.” Last year, Chamberlain donated over 700 of those books to the library at 1 Washington Cres.
Chamberlain said he has always collected hard-covered books except for a nine-year period when he lived on a boat at the Port Credit Yacht Club. At that time, space was at a premium, so he saved soft-covered books instead. “When I left the boat, I started getting hard-covered books again.”
Last year, when the volunteer who had been taking care of the library was having health problems and wanted to give up the work, Chamberlain volunteered to take over.
“I got a vision for what I’d like to see in the library,” he said.
Besides having a library in the communal activity area on the ground floor of 1 Washington Cres., there is also a billiards room, a TV room, a commercial kitchen, a large meeting hall and a smaller hall with a long table for coffee get-togethers. The library has wall-to-wall bookshelves, a gas fireplace, a small table with two chairs, and a comfortable seating area for residents to sit and read a book. There is a smaller one-room activity centre at 3 Washington Cres., which has one wall of bookshelves. Residents at both locations are welcome to use both activity centres.
“I think we’re really fortunate to have these activity rooms, the library, games rooms, meetings rooms…,” said Chamberlain. “I think that’s pretty extraordinary. We’re lucky to have what we have.”
After consulting with the elected board of the activity committee, which covers both buildings, Chamberlain said he shared his vision about changes he would like to make in the library, which included donating some of his bookshelves and having the committee cover some of the cost of new and used bookshelves.
Re-organization of the library shelves saw a separation of book types, with hard-covered together in order of author, and soft-covered in another area. Chamberlain also made special sections for Canadian authors, westerns, non-fiction, and biographies. There is also a small section for books by resident authors; there are four known published authors living at 1 Washington Cres.
Other changes in the library include greater use by residents.
“We get a lot of use of the library now and that’s nice to see. And we get a lot more donations of books.
“I want people to feel comfortable to come down and read for a couple of hours.”