A tiny leather-bound book from 1903 sits among the prized items at Well-Read Books in Whitehorse: an original edition of a Robert Service collection containing both Songs of the Yukon and The Cremation of Sam McGee, the poem that would go on to define how the outside world imagines the gold rush North. It is exactly the kind of find that makes this shop more than a general used bookstore. Established in 1999 by longtime Yukoners Jan Stick, Hans Herdes, and Karen Walker, Well-Read Books has grown into the territory’s only dedicated secondhand bookshop, and over more than two decades it has built a reputation well beyond Whitehorse for its depth in Northern and Klondike-era material.
The shop carries more than 55,000 titles across every genre, but its defining strength is a collection of out-of-print and hard-to-find books about the Yukon, Alaska, and the Klondike Gold Rush, including signed copies and first editions tied to Robert Service, the poet who arrived in Whitehorse in 1904 and chronicled the region’s gold rush years in verse that is still quoted today. Customers searching for regional history, sourdough memoirs, or long out-of-print Northern fiction often start here before looking anywhere else, and staff actively work to track down specific requested titles rather than simply stocking whatever comes through the door.
Located in downtown Whitehorse, the shop keeps generous hours for a used bookstore: Monday through Friday from 10am to 5:30pm, Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from noon to 4pm, making it an easy stop for both locals and the steady stream of visitors passing through the Yukon’s capital. Beyond browsing, Well-Read Books offers a trade-in program that gives customers store credit worth 20 percent of a book’s cover price, redeemable for a 25 percent discount on used purchases, along with book cleaning on incoming stock, gift certificates, special ordering, and shipping for customers who cannot visit in person. The inventory turns over regularly as new arrivals are cleaned, sorted, and shelved, so repeat visits routinely turn up titles that were not there the week before.
Customer reaction over the years has been consistently warm, with regulars describing the shop as a real treasure in Whitehorse and praising the staff as helpful, enthusiastic, and friendly, the kind of small-business reputation that only builds after decades of steady, attentive service in a small territorial capital. For anyone researching Yukon history, chasing a specific Robert Service edition, or simply looking to spend an afternoon browsing floor-to-ceiling shelves in one of the North’s few remaining independent bookstores, Well-Read Books offers both the inventory and the local expertise to make the search worthwhile. The combination of a 55,000-plus title stock, a specialty in Northern and Klondike literature found almost nowhere else, and a quarter-century of ownership rooted in the community itself sets this shop apart from any general secondhand bookseller further south.
Well-Read Books in Whitehorse is the Yukon’s only used bookstore, a 55,000-title shop built over 25-plus years around a signature collection of rare Klondike, Robert Service, and Northern out-of-print titles that draws collectors and casual readers alike.
