The Granville Book Company (850 Granville Street, Downtown, 604-687-2213) iS a popular, late-hours independent on the Granville Street Mall that covers all the bases, from politics and periodicals to computer tomes.
White Dwarf Books (4368 West joth Avenue, Westside) specializes in science fiction and fantasy. Next door, Dead Write deals in books of crime and detection (both at 604-228-8223, www.deadwrite.com).
Downtown, Albion Books (523 Richards Street, 604-662-3113) is small but packs in the modern fiction, philosophy, music, art, and, a specialty, books on chess. There are also used jazz CDS and collectible LPS. Among an eccentric cluster of alternative-style businesses near Gastown, you’ll find, below the street, Arcanum Books (317A Cambie Street, 604-681-5411). It specializes in metaphysics, religious philosophy, and New Age.
And, if you don’t mind disorganization, wade into MacLeod’s Books (455 West Pender Street, 604-681-7654). Owner Don Stewart is one of the city’s most knowledgeable secondhand and antiquarian book-sellers (mind over clutter).
I’d be remiss in not pointing out Banyen Books (3608 West 4th Avenue, Kitsilano, 604-732-7912), the lodestar of the city’s counter-culture and New Age movements. It’s a well-stocked source of all things health related, spiritual, and otherwise healing. (Also in the complex you’ll find Banyen Sound, 604-737-8858).
For those whose desires run toward physical nourishment, check out Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks (1128 Mainland Street, Yaletown, 604-688-6755), a beautifully appointed and culinarily sophisticated shop dedicated to most things delicious.
At the other end of the ideological spectrum sits People’s Co-op Bookstore (1391 Commercial Drive, East Vancouver, 604-253-6442), a member-run business that remains doggedly supportive of local writers and social justice issues, and sells books of local history and interest.
Back downtown, and through graffiti-plastered doors and up timeworn stairs (311 West Hastings Street, 604-688-6138), lives determinedly leftist Spartacus Books (“labor, women, politics, economics. Canadian-International”).
For a strong collection of foreign-language books and magazines, there’s Sophia Bookstore (492 West Hastings Street, Downtown, 604-684-0484, www.sophiabooks.com.)
Elaine Perry’s Vine & Fig Tree Books (4109 Macdonald Street, Westside, 604-734-2109) sells an intelligent mix of religious and spiritual fare.
Finally, Women in Print (3566 West 4th Avenue, Kitsilano, 604-732-4128) speaks for itself.
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