Wall to wall with books, as the shop describes its own space, The Book Re-View sits at 438 West Street North in Orillia, Ontario, a used bookstore built around browsing rather than a quick errand. The shelves cover a broad sweep of genres, with recent inventory highlighting mystery, thriller, and general fiction titles, though a shop this densely stocked typically rotates through nonfiction, children’s books, and other categories as new donations and trade-ins come through the door. Beyond the physical stacks, the store partners with audiobook service Libro.fm to offer audiobook recommendations, giving customers a way to extend their reading habit into listening without leaving the bookstore’s ecosystem entirely.
The store keeps a steady, predictable schedule, open Tuesday through Saturday from ten in the morning until five in the evening, and closed Sunday and Monday to give the shop a two day reset before the week’s browsing traffic picks back up. That five day window makes it a reliable stop for Orillia residents running errands along West Street North, whether they are dropping in on a lunch break or making a dedicated weekend trip to dig through the mystery and thriller sections.
Two details set The Book Re-View apart from a typical secondhand bookshop. First, the store is home to two resident cats, Ember and Violet, who greet browsing customers and have become something of a fixture for regulars, the kind of small, personal touch that turns an errand into an outing worth repeating. Second, the shop offers a twenty percent discount to students and teachers who show valid identification, a policy that directly supports two groups whose reading habits and bookshelves tend to benefit most from an affordable, high volume used bookstore nearby. Between semester reading lists, classroom novel units, and personal reading for pleasure, that discount turns The Book Re-View into a practical resource for the local school community rather than just a leisure destination.
For customers hunting a specific title the shelves do not currently hold, the store offers a wish list request service, letting shoppers ask staff to keep an eye out for particular books as new stock arrives, a feature especially useful in a used bookstore where inventory turns over unpredictably compared to a new release retailer. The shop also maintains an active social media presence, using it to spotlight curated new arrivals and keep regular customers aware of what has just landed on the shelves, since a wall to wall used bookstore can shift meaningfully week to week depending on what comes in through donations and trade-ins.
Positioned in Orillia’s West Street North retail corridor, The Book Re-View functions as both a neighborhood bookstore and a small community hub, anchored by its two shop cats and its commitment to keeping used books affordable and accessible for readers, students, and teachers throughout the area. The Book Re-View is an independent used bookstore in Orillia, Ontario, stocked wall to wall with fiction and genre titles, offering a twenty percent student and teacher discount, audiobook recommendations through Libro.fm, and a browsing experience made memorable by its two resident shop cats, Ember and Violet.
