Bolen Books
A Hillside bookstore with books, puzzles, games, and gifts.
Western Canada's biggest single-location indie bookstore, hiding in plain sight at Hillside.
Mel Bolen opened an 800-square-foot shop in Hillside Shopping Centre in 1975, then built it, as a single mother of two, into the largest single-location independent bookstore in Western Canada. It has been owned and run by Bolen women ever since, from Mel to her daughter Samantha, with a third generation now on the floor. Nearly 20,000 square feet of fiction, manga, cookbooks, kids' shelves, and a 65-foot puzzle wall that locals treat as a destination of its own. It is the bookstore for the mall side of town: free parking, no downtown meter anxiety, and the kind of place you wander into for one thing and leave two hours and a hundred dollars lighter.
The move
Go straight past the bestsellers to the 65-foot puzzle wall, which regulars treat as the real draw, then let the staff hand-sell you something off the kids' or sci-fi shelves. Budget more time and money than you planned.
Go when
A grey afternoon when downtown parking feels like a tax, or a weekend stock-up for kids' birthdays and rainy-day puzzles. It is a destination, so don't come if you only have ten minutes.
“Bolen Books has become more of a 'thing to do' rather than just a 'place to go.'”
Samantha Bolen, owner
Known for
Perfect for