Book Stores
The Book Shop
About The Book Shop
Bookshops keep their own logic. Shelves fill in the order that stock arrives rather than the order a customer expects, the browsing is the point rather than a delay, and this is why the ten minute visit so seldom stays ten minutes. The Book Shop holds an address at 238 and 242 Main Street, in the middle of the downtown Penticton commercial run.
Main Street is the spine of the city, a few blocks back from the Okanagan Lake beaches, and the storefronts along it serve a catchment much wider than the city limits. People come in for the day from Naramata and Kaleden, up from Oliver and Osoyoos, and across from Keremeos, and a shop on this stretch sits among the sort of businesses that reward an unhurried afternoon rather than a single errand. Summer adds holiday readers off the beach and the channel; the rest of the year the trade is steadier and largely local.
What a bookshop actually stocks is the thing that differs most from one to another. Some deal in new titles, some in used, some in both, and the balance between fiction, regional history, valley guides and children's books is a decision each shop makes for itself. Special orders, credit for books brought in, and whether a want list can be left behind are all reasonable things to raise at the counter. If you are hunting something specific rather than simply browsing, asking first saves a trip, and parking in this part of town is easy enough that a browse can be attached to any other errand in the core.
Visiting The Book Shop
Getting there
In the Downtown Penticton neighbourhood of Penticton.
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More places near Downtown Penticton
Other book stores and nearby businesses in the Penticton directory.
From the blog
Penticton guides and stories
Longer reads from the editor, with the places worth a detour linked inside them.
Penticton neighbourhoods explained: north, south and the channel between
Penticton keeps one official neighbourhood and divides itself by geography instead: the north beach downtown, the quieter south end, the channel running between, and the benches climbing west toward Naramata.
Read the guide
Halloween Ideas and Events in Penticton
The Apple Bin Corn Maze's family and spooky-evening sessions, the Great Pumpkin Loop through wine country, and the City's road-safety guidance.
Read the guide
Penticton's Labour Day weekend is the fullest calendar in the valley, beaches included
Two markets Saturday morning, a winery music circuit all weekend, a beach concert Saturday night, a benefit show worth crossing town for, and no triathlon this year.
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