Owl’s Nest Bookstore, 390 Queen St., Fredericton, New Brunswick. “If nothing else, we add some strangeness to the community,” says Debbie of Owl’s Nest Books, Fredericton’s principal secondhand bookstore. And indeed, with its endless rooms and motley décor, the store glows with haphazard charm. Owls hang on the walls. Q plays on the radio. Room after room offers nooks, corners, and...
Books on Beechwood, 35 Beechwood Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario. Jean Barton opened Books on Beechwood in 1994 and for nineteen years it has served as a hub hosting book signings, reading clubs, and children’s story-times for the Ottawa community. On a Saturday morning the aromas of coffee and baking from the scone shop next door bathe the store as shoppers stroll in. They pick up the morning’s Globe...
Ben McNally Books is located on 366 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario. When the number six bus stops at Bay and Richmond, its doors open to a storefront adorned with the words “read the fine print.” Located in the heart of Toronto’s Financial District, Ben McNally Books is surrounded by towering concrete buildings, an endless stream of cars, and the competing traffic of people rushing from one...
Great Books and Café is located at 316070 Highway 6, Williamsford, Ontario. The first thing one notice when visiting Great Books and Café at the Williamsford Mill is the serene beauty of the building. Located in the small village of Williamsford, Ontario, the bookstore is housed within a converted mill constructed in 1850 on the banks of the North Saugeen River. The structure offers all of the...
Turtle Creek Books is now located online. Denise Choppin has an inexplicable passion for books. “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t reading,” she says. “It makes as much sense to me as breathing.” This love affair began in earnest when Choppin stole her first book as a 10-year-old, lifting The Book of Myths off her grandparents’ bookshelf. She soon found herself transported to an enchanted...
The Word Bookstore is located at 469 Rue Milton, Montreal, Quebec. Only two blocks east of McGill University is The Word, one of Montreal’s premiere independent bookstores with a history as exciting as its academic neighbor. The Word bears a simple and modest exterior that can be easily mistaken for another apartment within the McGill student ghetto. On the inside, however, its walls of...