Second Hand Favourites
We’re compiling a list: favourite second hand book shops from down the street to the other side of the globe… so tell us your story, send us your photos! pr@wcdr.org
Ingrid Ruthig:
What a died-an’-gone-ta-heaven place Charing Cross Road can be for a book lover! In May 2006, I popped into Any Amount of Books and promptly spied a copy of my friend Steve Heighton’s novel AFTERLANDS in its UK edition . . . Now that I think of it, I visited ALL the bookshops on Charing Cross Road, and except for a few London souvenirs for my daughters, my return carry-on luggage consisted mainly of bags full of books. Mais naturellement!
No matter where I travel, I always seem to find a bookstore. The following are a few faves, some of them closer to home than others:
- Old Favourites in Green River (their inventory can be searched/perused via AbeBooks.com),
- David Mason Books in Toronto, where years ago I rescued several, beautiful but orphaned books printed in the 1700s,
- Sunrise Books in Guelph, which is the Motherlode, especially if you’ve a few hours to dig through books stacked waist-high in the aisles!
- Yesterday’s Things in Stratford,
and one of my all-time favourites
John W. Doull Bookseller in Halifax. A couple of summers ago, my daughters and I lost ourselves there for a few hours. We stepped inside, my husband spotted that look in our eyes and wisely took himself off to the more appealing (to him) Alexander Keith’s Museum.
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Heather Tucker:
Some people think this is my office but it’s really a secondhand bookstore my daughter discovered in the Insadong Artist’s Market in South Korea. I’m heading there in a couple of weeks. Any titles you want me to hunt for?
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Heather O’Connor:
I found Ottawa’s The Weekend Reader last March in a downtown area known for its arts population. A sign advertising the bookstore pointed into a narrow alley between two old buildings. Hmmm … a little sketchy, I thought – great place for a mugging. The signs continued, drawing me into a lair like a spider whispers to a fly. ‘Just a little further.’ ‘Down the stairs.’ ‘You’re almost there.’
I arrived in the bookstore at last, a low-ceilinged basement smorgasbord of dusty, leather-bound volumes, children’s classics, coffee table books on every topic. New, used, fiction, non-fiction, literary, pulp – they clustered by subject on industrial shelving. An area near the checkout was reserved for the truly valuable: first editions under glass and old tomes shelved with care under the proprietor’s loving hand.
If you decide to visit the 4000 square-foot bookshop, be prepared to invest plenty of time to pore over old favourites and new discoveries. It’s a veritable treasure cave. If you’re like me, you’ll leave behind a pretty penny but climb the stairs with an armload (or two) of new friends and old comrades. Yes, it is a trap after all.
Deb Rankine:
How about Shakespeare and Company in Paris, where they let writers sleep in the aisles if they can’t afford normal accommodation. (I’ve spent days in that store… though never a night. But wouldn’t that make for a great story!!!)
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Sue Reynolds
I was near Picton last week visiting a good friend. She showed me a book that had been written and self-published by a group of women in her area who study Jungian psychology. I read one of the essays in the book and was so impressed I wanted a copy. Well lo and behold, the bookstore in Picton, Books & Company, carries this book. And the books of other local authors. And selected second hand titles. And lots of new titles. The store is a joy, the staff wonderful, and the next door coffee shop which is accessible through the adjoining wall sells the best kick-ass espresso I’ve tasted in many a year. A fabulous find all round!
Another fave: I’ve been buying out of print and second hand books online through www.abebooks.com for a long time. On their site you can refine your search by country, amongst other things, so whenever possible I buy within Canada. Many times I have bought from The Highway Bookshop in Cobalt Ontario. (I wasn’t exactly sure where that was but I knew it was a loooooong way north).
As fate would have it, I’ve ended up going there in person twice this year. It’s a wonderful find (I’ve already raved about them in my review of The Queen’s Gambit, so I won’t do it again here). Dr. Douglas Pollard and his wife started the bookstore 52 years ago, and shortly thereafter started publishing books. Dr. Pollard just got the Order of Canada for his contributions to publishing etc. in 2008.
The bookstore’s for sale too if anyone has a dream of moving waaaay north and becoming a bookstore owner!
