The Paper Hound Bookshop

The Paper Hound Bookshop On Vancouver's Book Row since 2013. A thoughtful selection of printed matter, new, used and rare.

A little proof of life from your increasingly cyber-reticent Hounds - though since nothing in this image was published i...
05/27/2026

A little proof of life from your increasingly cyber-reticent Hounds - though since nothing in this image was published in the past quarter century, it is hardly the equivalent of holding up today’s newspaper for the ransomer’s photograph. You’ll just have to take our word for it, and so in the interest of full up-to-the-minute window display transparency, please note that the Farsi edition of Tintin sold in the interval between snapping this pic and posting it here, and has since been replaced with a 1970s bilingual souvenir programme of Habs goaltenders. The books may be old but at least you can leave your suspicions of AI-authorship at the door, oui?

POV: you're walking into The Paper Hound on Saturday, April 25th, which happens to be Canadian Independent Bookstore Day...
04/24/2026

POV: you're walking into The Paper Hound on Saturday, April 25th, which happens to be Canadian Independent Bookstore Day. The sun slants in as if to suggest a cosmic approbation for our bookselling mission. A fire extinguisher sits at the ready in case an overstimulated bibliophile's ardor results in combustion. A large flour jar from the pantry has been rinsed and re-deployed for the purposes of a draw (the prize is our usual offering: a $50 store gift certificate, a $25 gift card to our neighbours at Saunter, and of course a handsome tote bag). And, per tradition, if you bring a wire coat-hanger, we will twist it into a bespoke bookstand keepsake BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES!

And a special offering this year for our colleagues in the indie bookselling trenches: the first five booksellers to message us with their shop mailing address will receive one of five exclusive "The price is in pencil on the first page" temporary tattoos, which can be applied to neck, forehead, knuckles, left buttock....whatever anatomical surface is most "customer-facing" in your retail milieu. We ship worldwide!

Does your “Book Haul” require two flippers upraised to convey it over the threshold? Is your “TBR” pile so vertiginous ...
04/17/2026

Does your “Book Haul” require two flippers upraised to convey it over the threshold? Is your “TBR” pile so vertiginous that it obstructs your view and has you sometimes walking off the edge of an Antarctic ice shelf? Do you crack open your charming 1931 copy of Dear Doggie only to find that it faintly wafts an aroma of lanternfish? You might be the ornamental King Penguin greeting customers at the till at The Paper Hound.

A new generation of book buyers seems to be unfamiliar with the venerable custom of marking the price of the book in pen...
04/01/2026

A new generation of book buyers seems to be unfamiliar with the venerable custom of marking the price of the book in pencil on the flyleaf. Being asked dozens of times each day “where is the price?” makes a bookseller feel ancient and out of touch, so on an impulse I did something youthful and got the reply tattooed on my neck. It hurt like hell and my sister says I can’t be a bridesmaid at her wedding this summer because of it, but if I never have to answer this question again it was worth the pain and alienation. Like Piaf “je ne regrette rien”, which is good because unlike a pencilled price, this can never be erased.

***An update: This was an April Fool’s joke that wildly exceeded its modest goals. I have neither a neck tattoo nor a sister. Happy to have raised awareness about used bookshop pricing conventions! But leave my imaginary uptight sister alone!***

The fascinating contradictions of the public's attitude towards second-hand bookshops, here charmingly summarized by per...
03/26/2026

The fascinating contradictions of the public's attitude towards second-hand bookshops, here charmingly summarized by perennial Paper Hound favourite Edward Ardizzone.

Happy International Women’s Day from us and this treasured Marina Tsvetaeva-quoting bookmark, printed by the Quartermain...
03/08/2026

Happy International Women’s Day from us and this treasured Marina Tsvetaeva-quoting bookmark, printed by the Quartermains at the Keefer St Press, 2002.

Most of the principles of business administration continue to elude us, but we have finally grasped the concept of verti...
02/23/2026

Most of the principles of business administration continue to elude us, but we have finally grasped the concept of vertical integration. That’s when you put a few good titles on the very top shelf and make the customer climb.

Family Day. One of those open-ended stat holidays where you could basically do whatever, so why not amble down to your l...
02/16/2026

Family Day. One of those open-ended stat holidays where you could basically do whatever, so why not amble down to your local bookstore and dip into their oft-overlooked drawer of cabinet cards to build yourself an ersatz ancestral portrait gallery? If you would like to establish a bespectacled fake family lineage (bookish!), we’ve helpfully isolated all the photographs where the subjects wear glasses.

The grammatical arc described by our Valentine postcard pendulum finishes at one extreme with gingerly conditional conse...
01/29/2026

The grammatical arc described by our Valentine postcard pendulum finishes at one extreme with gingerly conditional consent and at another with an icky biological imperative. In our opinion, there’s really nothing to squelch a woo like deploying the verb “to mate” unless maybe the wooer is a Giant Panda or northern curlew.
Fortunately between these remote poles lies a vast spectrum of romance and charm, not pictured here because we like to save the really good stuff for the hardy folk who brave the damp to have that old fashioned real life shopping experience. Browsers, we call 'em. Forgive the precociousness of this post, but it seemed wise to let the long-distance lovers get their cards in the mail well before the mid-Feb deadline.

The arrival of Bleak Midwinter was signalled to this bookseller by a disquieting squirrel who maintained direct eye cont...
01/13/2026

The arrival of Bleak Midwinter was signalled to this bookseller by a disquieting squirrel who maintained direct eye contact while gnawing through a strand of fairy lights on the magnolia bush last week. That they were unplugged at the time was to the squirrel’s advantage. So now that we have plunged fully into the gloomy mire of January, with our festive garlands defeated by Nature’s nibbling antagonists, a lot of you are seeking books with narratives that are cheerful and uplifting. Unfortunately we do not sell those. However, we do have a drawer full of “books” (technically) that are full of “light” (literal not figurative) and they are also cheap and portable and offer a diverting history of the motel, restaurant, and cabaret culture of yesteryear. That’s right, our January staff pick is that you take up cigarette smoking! We will revisit this recommendation once the handful of vitamin D gel caps we tossed in our evening martini (“sunshine boba”) kick in.

Address

344 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B1T1

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 8pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm
Sunday 10am - 6pm

Telephone

604-428-1344

Website

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