I’m a book-lover. I admit it: the smell of old pages, the feeling of cracked spines in my hands, and the stories they tell. Sometimes I don’t even want to read them, I just want to adore them piled on bookshelves. One of the few places in Fredericton I try to frequent are bookstores and libraries. So far in Fredericton I’ve only been to Westminster Books, the UNB Harriet Irving Library and Owl’s Nest Bookstore.

While the library is anything one can expect from a campus library, I was excited about it because the idea of having a real library on campus is brilliant to me (coming from Saint John, where they closed their library and placed it in the Hans W. Klohn Commons building – yuck). Westminster Books is also unsurprising – a nice, small bookstore, selling only new books. The space felt open and the staff was friendly. On their website, you can order in books and they also have a book club, which is really easy to become a member of. Members get special discounts on certain items and give out a monthly thank-you gift after doing a draw on members who have made a purchase during that month.

Owl’s Nest Bookstore was quite a treat. Although it’s a little more hectic than I’d normally like, there was tons to it. There were books on the main floor, going back rooms and rooms and rooms full of books, as well as an upstairs that went almost as far. The books are arranged nicely into categorized sections, and the books are then alphabetized by author in those sections. However, as any used-bookstore will tend to be, some books do tend to get messed up in their ordering. It seems they’ve got such a large collection that it must be hard to keep one-hundred percent organized.

That wasn’t really an issue, though, and after asking for help locating a few books, I found what I was looking for and was pleased by the quality of service from whom I expected to be the owner. There are also quite a few cute little notes laying around: various short comics (Bug), a map of the store, as well as funny jokes and puns all over the place. They’ve also got their cat, whose name I now forget, who you can find either wandering through the store or lounging on their couch (for shoppers who’d like to sit and read a bit before their purchase). Along with your every-day fiction and non-fiction, they’ve got comic books, manga, and records as well.

The only downside I could find was that they only accept cash. Maybe I’m just careful with my money, but I don’t like to carry change with me unless it has a specific purpose, so not being able to purchase books with debit is a bit of a downer. Overall, the place felt cozy and welcoming and had the aroma of books which I so love. I wanted to sit down with a cup of coffee and pet their cat, and read until I was kicked out.

Hopefully I’ll find some more gems like this one as I make more frequent trips outside of home and school.