“AbeBooks is the world’s largest online marketplace for books. Whether it’s new, used, rare, or out-of-print, you can find it here, through our community of over 13,500 independent booksellers selling 100 million books from around the globe.”

Victoria,  British Columbia,  Canada
http://www.abebooks.com/

Sister shopping gateway of Amazon.com. (Uses the five star rating system online. Sometimes has extensive customer commentary on certain books.)

Canada
http://www.amazon.ca/

“Apollinaire’s Bookshoppe specializes in 20th century literature. Emphasis is given to poetry, smallpress, the experimental and the ephemeral. Apollinaire’s is also responsible for the distribution of BookThug, a small press that publishes contemporary innovative poetry.”

Toronto,  Ontario,  Canada
http://www.bookthug.ca/

“Blackberry Books is an independent, family-owned bookstore on Granville Island in the heart of beautiful Vancouver, BC.” Now, with a webstore.

Granville Island, Vancouver,  British Columbia,  Canada
http://www.bbooks.ca/

“Bolen Books, founded in 1975 is an owner operated family run enterprise. At 19800 square feet we are the largest independent Bookstore in B.C.”

Events

111-1644 Hillside Ave., Victoria,  British Columbia,  Canada
http://bolen.bc.ca/

“Books on Beechwood is an independently owned and operated business that has been serving the New Edinburgh neighborhood in Ottawa for over a decade. We pride ourselves on our literary-fiction, biography & history sections, and we offer a huge selection of books for children and young adults.”

35 Beechwood Avenue, Ottawa,  Ontario,  Canada
http://www.booksonbeechwood.on.ca/

Indigo Books & Music is the big fish Canadian bookseller. (Uses the five star rating system online)

Canada
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/

“Duthie Books is an independent Vancouver book store located in Kitsilano. Since 1957 Duthie Books has sought to provide excellence to readers throughout the Lower Mainland… Our web site will allow you to purchase books online, read up on new titles, as well as browse the inventory before you come in to visit us.”

2239 West Fourth Avenue, Vancouver,  British Columbia,  Canada
http://www.duthiebooks.com/

Kidsbooks, with stores in Vancouver and North Vancouver, now also sells books online.

3083 West Broadway, Vancouver, and 3040 Edgemont Blvd., North Vancouver,  British Columbia,  Canada
http://www.kidsbooks.bc.ca/

“The League of Canadian Poets, a non-profit arts service organization, is the national association of professional publishing and performing poets in Canada.”

Post events on their event calendar. Check out the Poetry Spoken Here Webstore, the Who’s who directory of members of the league, and the benefits of membership. Students and teachers will love the offshoot site youngpoets.ca.

Canada
http://www.poets.ca

“Mac’s Fireweed Books is a proud, independent bookstore and a Whitehorse institution. Mac’s has a terrific selection of books and newspapers from all over the world.”

203 Main Street, Whitehorse,  Yukon Territory,  Canada
http://www.macsbooks.ca/

Canada’s largest independent bookseller, a “small” chain, McNally Robinson opened a new store in New York City in December of 2004. (Ratings free online store)

Canada
http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/

“Canada’s most magnificent bookstore!” Located in the heart of Victoria’s Old Town.

Events

1108 Government Street, Victoria,  British Columbia,  Canada
http://www.munrobooks.com

“For over thirty years, Nicholas Hoare has provided an eclectic selection of books, predominantly British, to individuals and libraries worldwide.

“Our shops, located in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, feature books and CDs in uncommonly elegant settings: the best of fiction, current affairs, biography, food and wine, with design, travel, and unusual books for children.”

Ottawa events

Ottawa (419 Sussex Dr.), Toronto, and Montreal,  Canada
http://www.nicholashoare.com/

“Northwest Passages is a virtual bookstore and information resource for readers, scholars, and students of Canadian literature. Founded in 1996, by Rob Stocks and Paul Martin, Northwest Passages operates out of Vancouver, British Columbia…. Northwest Passages focuses on a very specific niche: Canadian fiction, poetry, drama, and literary criticism. By so doing, we have taken a deliberate step to position ourselves as the complete antithesis of the online superstores; rather than trying to address some of the needs of everyone, we have chosen to focus on all of the needs of a particular group of readers.”

Northwest Passages ships worldwide. Check out their overview of Canadian literary awards and their extensive “CanlitLINKS”: page, offering “the largest set of Canadian literature links on the Internet.” Subscribe to their monthly email newsletter, The Compass.

Vancouver,  British Columbia,  Canada
http://www.nwpassages.com/

“Progressive books, news & views.”

Ottawa events

116 Third Ave., Ottawa,  Ontario,  Canada
http://www.octopusbooks.org/

“Located in the heart of the Kensington Village shopping and entertainment district, Pages is Calgary’s literary meeting place. We offer over 10,000 titles in stock at any given time and, through our special order service, we have access to most North American titles in print…”

“Our reading series goes practically year-round, offering the latest from Calgary’s writers as well as those from across Canada and around the world. Check out our upcoming events calendar to keep on top of what’s happening ‘upstairs at the bookstore’.” Or sign up for the email list newsletter.

1135 Kensington Road N.W., Calgary,  Alberta,  Canada
http://www.pages.ab.ca/index.html

“We have a large general stock on a wide variety of subjects at reasonable prices. This includes certain particular strength, such as Literature; British, Scottish, Irish history and literature, bibliography, poetry, Canadian history and local history divided into section by province. Others large sections are Ships and the Sea, Medicine, Philosophy, Ancient History and Classics, Art History, Canadian Art, First Nations, Law, Asia, Arctic, modern first editions, the Americas, etc. “

783 Bank Street (in the Glebe), Ottawa,  Ontario,  Canada
http://www.mcgahernbooks.ca

On the Drive! Formed in 1945, the People’s Co-op Bookstore aims to circulate books and magazines that are “socially significant”.

Now you can order books online. Get monthly newsletter to keep up with local Vancouver book news and events.

1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver,  British Columbia,  Canada
http://www.peoplescoopbookstore.com/

“The Poetry Spoken Here webstore feature’s exclusively Canadian poetry titles, published over the last several years. Titles are posted twice a year, in fall and spring, to coincide with the publishing seasons. The site includes most, but not all, titles published in Canada. Titles are selected by the League of Canadian Poets and Canadian poetry publishers. Reviews are commissioned for the titles (except chapbooks), and they are posted, with sample poems if possible, about a month after the books are posted.”

Canada
http://www.poets.ca/pshstore/

“Spoken Word Audiobooks is a retail store specializing in the sale of books on cassette tape ( and CD ). We’re located in downtown Toronto and carry several thousand audio titles from over a hundred different publishers.”

Toronto,  Ontario,  Canada
http://www.spoken-word.com/

“Ascent Aspirations Publishing is an independent publisher that has been publishing the electronic magazine Ascent Aspirations since 1997.”

“Ascent is a literary magazine that specializes in the darker shades of short fiction in all genres, publishes poetry with an edge, and features creative photography and art.”

International
http://www.ascentaspirations.ca/

“Eco Books is an on-line, mail order bookstore. We feature books on a wide range of ecological issues.” Here is the Eco Books catalog of Ecological Literature and Criticism.

Hammondsport, New York,  United States
http://www.ecobooks.com/catalogs/literature.htm

“America’s premier independent literary center, founded in 1976, promotes the art of contemporary writing by building a community of writers, workshop leaders, publishers and audiences.”

“The Writer’s Center is a non-profit community of writers supporting each other in the creation and marketing of literary texts. The Writer’s Center annually conducts hundreds of workshops in various genres of writing. Workshop participants share with one another their work-in-progress under the guidance of an experienced instructor who is also a published author.”

workshops, readings, conferences, bookstore…

Bethesda, Maryland,  United States
http://www.writer.org/index.asp