THEEight independent bookstores worth finding in person.
PLACES TO WANDER · ISSUE 001If you're looking for the best independent bookstores in Vancouver, Places to Wander's edited guide includes Massy Books in Chinatown, The Paper Hound in Downtown and MacLeod’s Books in Downtown. Explore the selected shops below, with neighborhood context, drawings and links to each shop's own website. The guide is edited, not numerically ranked.
Map: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, © OpenStreetMap contributors and GIS User Community. Selected streets and water; numbered points use the existing address matches. Use directions for your visit.
Browse the drawings. Open a shop for visiting details.
A narrow aisle, tall shelves, plenty of room for a different point of view. Massy brings new, used and rare books together in Chinatown.
Narrow aisle, tall shelves. Enough for a different point of view.
Worth a special trip forA narrow aisle and tall shelves of new, used and rare books in Chinatown.
229 E Georgia St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Koch and Clarke’s shop under a whippet, where the polishing of the brass door handle has been logged for thirteen years as a durational art project.
New, used and rare books with an eye for the unexpected. Follow a subject a little further than you meant to.
The subject you came for is one shelf short of the one you'll leave with.
344 W Pender St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Leave the tidy reading list at home. This secondhand bookshop is a detour through stacks, shelves and subjects you did not come looking for.
Worth a special trip forA secondhand shop of stacks and subjects you did not come looking for.
455 W Pender St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
New books meet well-read copies on East Hastings. Iron Dog’s trade-in program gives the next reader a way in.
Worth a special trip forNew books beside well-read copies on East Hastings, with a trade-in program for the next reader.
2671 E Hastings St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
New and used fiction and nonfiction
Books are the point. Give the shelves ten minutes with nothing else running.
Worth a special trip forNew and used fiction and nonfiction on Main Street. Books are the point.
2422 Main St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
A non-profit literary incubator on Granville Island that is also a bookshop.
A bookshop with room for the writing life. On Granville Island, independent publishers share space with workshops and conversations.
Publishers, workshops and readers on one island. The writing life has company here.
1387 Railspur Alley, Vancouver, BC, Canada
A bookshop puts someone else’s choices in front of you. Spend time with a subject outside your work. See what comes back with you.
A co-operative bookshop on Commercial Drive, with new and used books. Another way to think about who a bookshop belongs to.
Ask how a co-operative bookshop chooses its shelves.
Worth a special trip forA co-operative bookshop on Commercial Drive with new and used books. Ask how a co-op chooses its shelves.
1391 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Began as a book table at Simon Fraser University in 1972, run by volunteers ever since, burned uninsured in 2004 and came back. Explosive titles since 1973, as the shop puts it.
A volunteer-run bookshop with an independent streak. Browse books and zines that make room for arguments beyond the familiar ones.
Volunteers keep it open. Pick up an argument you have never heard finished.
101–1983 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Pulpfiction Books, Lucky’s Books & Comics. These selections remain in the draft; their branch portraits are not ready.
Places to Wander's edited selection includes Massy Books, The Paper Hound, MacLeod’s Books, Iron Dog Books, Pulpfiction Books, Upstart & Crow, People’s Co-op Bookstore and Spartacus Books. The guide is not numerically ranked. Each entry explains why the shop is included and links to the shop's own website.
MacLeod’s Books in Downtown. A secondhand shop of stacks and subjects you did not come looking for. The Detour is an editorial designation, not a ranking.
Yes. Massy Books (new, used and rare), The Paper Hound (new, used and rare), MacLeod’s Books (used) and Iron Dog Books (new and used). Used, antiquarian and rare books are not interchangeable labels; this guide uses each description only where the shop's entry supports it.
Spartacus Books in Commercial Drive. These are selections from the issue, not a complete directory.
Yes. The Vancouver issue includes a map and shop index. Select a shop to open its entry, then use the shop's official link for visiting details. The illustrated map is an orientation aid, not a turn-by-turn route.
The Corporate Artist: The Art of Working Beautifully is Morgan Sage Norman’s book about bringing your creative self to everyday work. It explores how the roles we play, the conversations we have and the decisions we make can become creative practice.
Find your copy ↗Try Every Role Has a Medium (Your Craft) for a different way to look at what you do.
Or turn to Nothing Is Wasted and Rightsizing Importance. Begin with the title that catches you.
Looking for books about creativity at work? Visit the Reading Room.
Another city. Another way to look.