Hi friends, happy Tuesday! I hope all is well. Today I’m so excited to be bringing to you guys, my fourth bookstores across Ontario post! I will be diving into 7 bookstores in St.Catherine’s/Fort Erie region, let’s get into it!

I can’t believe I’m here with a fourth post! This makes me so excited to see how many Independent bookstores are in my province! I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface of the stores in Ontario. On Independent Bookstore Day we hit up 7 stores! This journey took one of my best friend’s and I to new places we’ve never been before. The day was rainy and grey, but I’ll take that over snow, and it was still a great day! We started early at 9 to hit the road (since this was truly a road trip St. Catherines being a little a ways from home) and wrapped up around 5.

In this blog I went to bookstores in St. Catherines, Niagara -on-the-Lake, Fort Erie and Port Colburne.
If you’re curious about parts 1, 2 & 3 you can check out my trips to:

Burlington and Hamilton
Mississauga, Etobicoke, Bolton and Orangeville
Toronto

St. Catherines

Our first stop was to Thistle Bookshop and Cafe. It was such a cute small store tucked into a strip plaza that has other cute stores. For a small space, it was popping; there were people everywhere! I was actually surprised how busy it was. I think the fact that it has a cafe inside helped with the business. Not only did I get a book, but a latte for the road too – a toasted marshmallow latte, yum! This had such a cozy, warm feel to it, highly recommend! They are located 50 Lakeport Rd #103, St. Catharines.

Website: Thistle Bookshop and Cafe
Facebook: Thistle Bookshop and Cafe
Instagram: @thistlebookshopandcafe

Our second stop was Someday Books. This bookstore was hidden in a corner, that I totally missed it when we drove past it to park. It has such a clean, fresh look to it that has such a large selection of books that I didn’t know what I was going to pick up. They were super friendly too, which totally makes an experience so much better! This was located at 21 King St Suite B, St. Catharines.

Website: Someday Books
Facebook: Someday Books
Twitter: @someday_books
Instagram: @someday.books

Our third stop was walking distance from the store above. It’s a few blocks, about 10 minutes away and you get to see most of downtown St. Catherines. The Write Bookshop is a used bookstore with books… everywhere. Sometimes stores like this overwhelm me because I don’t know where to look first, second, third or last! This also had a second floor so it was a lot of looking and shuffling. It didn’t really feel like there was a coherent way in which books were organized so I was looking left and right trying to find anything I would be interested in. After I don’t even know how long I did manage to find a book that is on my classics list. This bookstore is located at 285 St Paul St, St. Catharines.

Facebook: The Write Bookshop

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Our fourth stop was to Old Niagara Bookshop, just off the main strip in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I never knew how close this store was the main strip, as I was there just last year and missed this store. But this has such a cozy vibe to it, although we were the only ones in there and the owner was a very quiet, but nice old lady. This store had a nice selection of books, I saw there were quite a few on Ontario, which is pretty cool, although I didn’t get any of those books (I bought a classic). This store is located at 223 Regent St, Niagara-on-the-Lake.

This store doesn’t have a website or a social media presence but I’ll link you to a Yelp page.

Fort Erie

Our fifth stop was about a 45 minute drive away, but it was a nice scenic drive. I’ve never been to Fort Erie before (I’ve never truly been to St. Catherines either) and I think because of the weather it made it feel like a ghost town. I also didn’t realize how close they are to the boarder (like my phone thought I was in the U.S. 🙄). Bridgeburg Bookstore and Games is another used bookstore with a few new releases and a map of the store (which was helpful) and again books everywhere. I liked the basement better because I feel like everything down there was just in alphabetical order, which was really helpful when you went in with a list (like I did!). I ended up with 4 books from this store that’s how successful the alphabetical order worked! This bookstore is located 16 Jarvis St, Fort Erie.

Website: Bridgeburg Bookstore and Games
Facebook: Bridgeburg Bookstore and Games
Instagram: @bridgeburg_books_and_games

Our sixth stop was a few minutes drive away. Lakeside Books and Art was such a cute little homey shop. The front was all books and the back held all kinds of things, plus upstairs held antiques and trinkets and hand crafted things, lots to look at. I like looking through shops like this because you never know what you’re going to find. Of course I found a book but they had really cute notepads and cards too. Such a lovely little shop. This store was located at 341 Ridge Rd N, Ridgeway.

Website: Lakeside Books and Art
Facebook: Lakeside Books and Art
Instagram: @lakesidebooksandart

Port Colburne

Our seventh and last stop was to this very small, very packed bookstore, Alphabet Bookshop. This store had lots to look at, antiques and books, very high shelves of books and old books too. It was fascinating to see everything. This had a cozy feel because it was dimly lit inside and made you want to pick up a book and start reading. This store is located at 145 Main St W, Port Colborne.

Website: Alphabet Bookshop

And there we have it, the 7 bookstores I went to a few weeks ago! ! Have you been to any of these stores? Any independent bookstores you’d recommend in Ontario? Hit me up in the comments!