Alphabetized shelves are not something most used bookstores bother with, but at Castaway Used Books in Comox, that kind of order is the point. Located at 1761-B Comox Avenue in the heart of this Vancouver Island town on the Comox Valley waterfront, the shop, operated by Nearly New Books Inc, organizes its entire secondhand inventory by section so browsing feels efficient rather than overwhelming, a small operational choice that regular customers single out in their reviews as the reason shopping here beats digging through a jumbled used bookstore bargain bin. The genre range is broad: adventure fiction, youth and childrens literature, Canadiana, self help, mystery, history, and humor all get their own organized space on the shelves, giving the store a real everything under one roof feel for readers who do not want to specialize in just one type of book.
The shop is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, a schedule that fits the rhythm of Comox as a quieter Vancouver Island community rather than a big city retail strip. What sets Castaway apart from a typical used bookstore is its trade in program: customers can bring their own used books to the shop and receive store credit toward a new purchase, with up to half of any single sale eligible to be covered using that credit. That system keeps the shelves constantly refreshed with community sourced inventory while giving regular readers a genuinely lower cost way to keep working through their reading list, rather than simply reselling books back for cash and buying elsewhere.
For readers hunting a specific title that is not currently on the physical shelves, Castaway also maintains an online catalogue through Biblio.com, letting customers search available stock remotely before making the trip in, which is a useful option for anyone driving in from elsewhere on the Comox Valley or the wider Vancouver Island region rather than a local walking distance customer. Combined with knowledgeable staff who reviewers consistently describe as friendly and helpful, the store has built a loyal following that treats it as a genuine destination bookstore rather than a last resort secondhand shop, with online reviews repeatedly praising both the owners personally and the well laid out shelving system that makes finding a specific genre simple even for first time visitors.
Comox itself sits on the Strait of Georgia across from the BC mainland, a small coastal community known for its harbor, its air force base, and its role as a gateway to the Comox Valley’s outdoor recreation, and Castaway fits naturally into that low key small town retail landscape alongside the area’s other independent shops. For anyone who wants to sell books they have already read, trade toward something new, or simply spend an afternoon working through a well organized mystery or history section, the shop offers a straightforward, community rooted alternative to buying everything new or driving to a big box retailer on the mainland.
In short, Castaway Used Books is a Comox, BC secondhand bookstore known for its alphabetized genre organization, its trade in credit program, and an online catalogue that lets shoppers check inventory before visiting the Comox Avenue storefront in person.
