Welcome to our latest BALLER Profile! Every Wednesday you can look forward to reading interviews with authors, publishing professionals, library people, readers, and more. This week it is my pleasure to introduce you to Mika Burns!

Winston: Thank you for chatting with us Mika! So to start, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your connections to the bookish world?

Mika: My name is Mika Burns and I’ve been a reader since I was an even more annoyingly bookish child, but for the past five years I’ve been a bookseller in my city’s oldest independent bookstore! (Editor’s note: Shout out to Audreys Books!)

Winston: So did you choose the bookseller life or did the bookseller life choose you?

Mika: I had been thrifting books for many years while in university, making sure I covered all my bases and read all the classic literature in my major (gender studies, woot!). Like most university students, reading for pleasure wasn’t a luxury I could afford until after graduation.

After school I hunted for work which led me to Audreys books! I was brought back into the book world and became even more enamoured with books (especially fiction and horror) than ever before. Nowadays, if someone brings up books, I shall magically appear.

So while I chose the bookseller life, it’s definitely been fuelled by a long history of being a book nerd!

Winston: And so what’s a favourite thing about being a bookseller? Or have you got a favourite bookseller story?

Mika: Nothing feels cooler than a customer walking in, asking “Do you know where I can find the book called ______?” and I know exactly which corner shelf of the store that book is sitting in. For true book lovers, the bookstore is a second home, and being connected to the space you love is the best warm fuzzy feeling.

It’s also pretty cool when a customer is looking for a book – however, they don’t know the title, author, or topic, but “it has a red cover” – and actually working your magic to find that random book for them!

Winston: Then for the customers who don’t have a book in mind, what’s on your TBR pile these days? Or on your staff picks list?

Mika: I’m a big horror fan, and one of my most recent reads was Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson. Bloom is a slow burn sapphic cottage-core romance turned body horror serial killer! It also includes delicious cupcakes. I’m really looking forward to the new Eric Larocca collection that releases in April 2024, but while I wait I’m read The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz – a psycho thriller about authors competing against each other for a million dollar publishing deal.

Winston: So you’d mentioned earlier about bookstores being like a second home for book lovers. What would be your dream library or bookstore, or do you have a favourite actual library or bookstore?

Mika: My ultimate dream home library would have all four walls made into bookshelves with a rolling ladder to reach the top! A secret passageway to a reading book is also the dream.

But for actual bookstores, I’m currently obsessed with Little Ghosts bookstore in Toronto as they’re entirely horror!

Winston: Have you got a favourite bookish fact or bit of bookish trivia?

Mika: Books and reading, are technically speaking, cool as heck!

Winston: I would have to agree that that is a fact lol. So any other projects, bookish or otherwise, that you wanted to share or promote?

Mika: One of my favourite authors, Cara Tierney, is releasing the third volume of their graphic novel series Phantomtits! It may feature me briefly but trust, the series is incredible for a million other reasons!

Winston: Amazing! I can’t wait to check that out, just as soon as it shows up on your staff picks shelf at work!

And thank you, dear patrons, for joining us again! See you again next week for our next BALLER Profile!

In the meantime, Happy Reading!

– Winston