It has been far too long since the good people of Oakville have been able to stroll along the downtown core and enjoy the priceless experience of sauntering into a quaint little bookstore.
I for one regularly pass by businesses that used to be bookstores and feel a stab of nostalgia for the times when I could walk into stores and buy something for my brain rather than my house, my body or my dog. There is just no substitute for walking into a bookstore, taking in all the glossy new covers that call out to you and then striking up a lively conversation with the shopkeeper about the books and their authors.
"We are a small, curated independent bookstore in downtown Oakville, located right behind Corks Restaurant. We focus on contemporary, cutting-edge and critically-lauded fiction, non-fiction and memoir, with a children's section targeted at the sandbox crowd, as well as high-end cooking, gardening and design books," states Archetype Books owner, Natalie Jenner.
So imagine my euphoria this morning when I walked into what I consider my Christmas present from the town of Oakville, Archetype Books, the kind of charming, Notting Hill style bookstore for which I’ve been pining.
It went like this: The owner, Natalie Jenner is the perfect book browsing companion “I couldn’t get through that Mindy Kahling book everybody was raving about”, I tell her rolling my eyes. “Lots of people actually couldn’t” she consoles me; “How about Penelope Fitzgerald?” an author I’ve (shamefully) never heard of but to which I am instantly drawn and I put PF on my mental “who to read next” list. In the end I can’t decide between the latest in the Bridget Jones trilogy or “The Little Paris Bookshop” so I’ll have to go back again which means I’ll walk out of the store with both of them.
305 Lakeshore Road East (Just behind Corks Restaurant)
Between Reynolds & Trafalgar on the Northside
Telephone: (905)842-9090
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @oakvillebooks