Inventory: 6 B.C. bookstores to lose yourself in

1. Cross and Crows

To queer and Lebanese-American owner Nena Rawdah, a bookstore is nothing without its bookworms, and her East Vancouver store Cross and Crows aims to be a welcoming space for all. Since opening in 2023, she’s featured queer books and art and welcomed influential authors and artists into her space, including Martha Shelley, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front, and Kai Cheng Thom, author of Falling Back in Love with Being Human.

2. Groove Cat Books and Records

What goes together better than groovy music, a good book and a cat on your lap? John and Cat Hughes, alongside their shop kitty, Luna, would say not much. Groove Cat Books and Records in New Westminster boasts a large selection of local goods and all genres of books and records, including some rare punk-rock originals. The store opened in 2022, just in time for the rise of Booktok (visit for your next haul or just to cuddle with Luna).

3. Notably

Within a cozy 500-square-foot space, Notably has tightly packed a wide selection of new fiction books, graphic novels and classics. Since 2021, Samara Nicoll has been running the bookstore of her teenage dreams (she made it work des­pite opening just as the third wave of the pandemic hit). Rocky road aside, she’s managed to  create a chill space that celebrates Nelson’s voracious readers.

4. Huckleberry Books

Huckleberry Books has had a long history (since 1971!) of names, locations and ow­ners, but the current iteration was bought by Erin Dalton in 2019. The store is packed with new books from a variety of genres,  including an exceptional kid’s section and a carefully curated selection of non-fiction. Dalton’s goal is to fill her shelves with books that showcase underrepresented voices, and she holds annual fundraisers for local organizations in Cranbook, her home base. 

5. Fable Book Parlour

What began as a bookstore on wheels in the spring of 2021 (1973 Shasta trailer wheels, to be specific) is now a brick-and-mortar shop in Revelstoke. Fable Book Parlour is the brainchild of Stacy Batchelor and Kristin Olsen. The store carries new and used books with a focus on literary fiction for kids, young adults and up, as well as adventure stories and guidebooks for your trip up the mountain. They put sustainability at the forefront, and are bringing the discussion of what the production, sourcing and shipping of books in Canadian bookselling is costing the climate. 

6. Books and Shenanigans

As the pandemic began to wind down, Kerri Doyle was craving a place to connect with others through books. So she opened Books and Shenanigans in 2021. Since then, she’s created a small but mighty community of book lovers in Victoria, hosting seven monthly book clubs and one quarterly club (there’s a waitlist to join). “My store is smaller than most, so I am unable to host a lot of the big, author-type events,” says Doyle, “but being located in this village, within this community, I get to know people by name—and that’s pretty great.”