Orphan Books

An absolutely delightful little shop with an absolutely delightful little owner that you absolutely should check out. It’s local and it’s a bookshop, so it’s a built-​in-​5-​stars for me.
It’s small, but they’ve got a great selection and it’s not congested. (They often put boxes of $ 1 books on the sidewalks when it’s nice out, which helps.) There’s a lot of science/​speculative fiction, but there’s a decent selection of contemporary fiction and classics as well. Not a whole lot of 2013 – 14 titles, but some fairly recent stuff and lots of old favourites. Nothing like the smell of a well-​worn book. Yum!
The price-​point is where it’s at: if you’re a reader who devours books like I am, spending $ 20 – 30 for each new book is nearly impossible. And I refuse to go the way of the e-​book. Enter Orphan Books AKA saver of my pocket book.

This is a very cute, very little shop on Agricola that I must have walked by a million times without noticing they were there since their opening earlier this summer. Open only Wednesday to Friday, it’s tricky to find a time to pop in but I finally poked around today.
With only four or five shelves of books, it’s surprisingly refreshing compared to mammoth bookstores like Chapters or even other second hand bookstores where you feel things could come toppling down on you at any minute. It’s simple, there’s room to breathe and actually take in the titles in front of you, and you can bet that the owner can find what you’re looking for if it’s in her collection.
The coolest part? While this used bookstore focused entirely on fiction, there’s an obvious bias toward science-​fiction, making for a really interesting collection of niche books. Cheap too! Dig around and find yourself some deals.