Quirky Bookstores

Yesterday, I wrote about some of the biggest bookshops in the world to visit.  If big isn’t your thing, how about “quirky”?  Bookstr made a bucket list of “well-loved and quirky” book stores:   https://www.bookstr.com/article/the-bookstore-bucket-list/777?trr_article_source=related-posts-module.

Of the 20 on the list, two are in Canada, both in or near Toronto:  The Monkey’s Paw, which has a coin-operated vending machine filled with old books, and a self-proclaimed World’s Smallest Bookstore which sells books on the honour system. 

The Monkey’s Paw website is at http://www.monkeyspaw.com/ .

The World’s Smallest Bookstore, unfortunately, is now closed, though here’s an informative article about it and its owners:  http://notesandqueries.ca/web-exclusive/worlds-smallest-bookstore-closes-door-good-by-ray-robertson/. 

At this bookstore, visitors could pick up complimentary handbills titled “Why I Love Books” with the following reasons listed: 

1) Books are silent.

2) Books do not require hydro.

3) Books do not interrupt

4) Books open easily — no switches or remotes

5) Books can be shut up easily anytime

6) Books cannot be offended

7) Books do not talk back

8) Books do not demand T.L.C. — but get it anyway.

9) Books do not require food or water

10) Books will not feel neglected

11) Books will not send you on a guilt trip if you lose interest or ignore them

12) Books never require medical attention

13) Books do not have commercials

14) A book does not go into a snit if you look at another book

15) A book won’t mind if you are reading more than book at a time.

(http://bookriot.com/2013/01/28/the-worlds-smallest-bookstore/)

I guess the Pushcart Bookshop in Sedgwick, Maine, (which was mentioned in yesterday’s blog) is indeed the world’s smallest bookstore:  http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2579#m29586.