Barely Bent Used Books 46 King St East, Dundas
By Trish Gallant
Photos by Lisa Vuyk
If you’re headed out to Dundas to The Printed Word, our last I Heart Hamilton Book Crawl stop, you’re going to want to also make a pit stop into Barely Bent Used Books. Conveniently located just down the street from The Printed Word, Barely Bent is a treasure trove of goodness.
Discount books fill bins bookending the front entrance way. Stepping inside, you’re greeted to wall to wall shelves and crates and stacks of well-organized books. There is something so charming about a bookstore that is literally bursting at its seams. If Bryan Prince Bookseller had me wanting to sing out Beauty and the Beast, Barely Bent had me singing Little Mermaid:
I’ve got Classics and Non-Fic a plenty, I’ve got Sci-Fi and Literary galore. You want Romance? I’ve got twenty… but who cares? No big deal… I want moooore.
Friends who read romance (don’t deny it. I know there are some of you out there) this is a great place for you. I think it’s one of the few bookshops that actually carries a large selection of Romance.
Personally, one of my absolute favourite bits of this store is the placement of the shop’s Military Fiction section. In a box, on a chair, in front of the Staff-Only section is where you will find all books pertaining to Military and Espionage. Well played, Barely Bent. Well played.
Barely Bent is kind of a little Labyrinth of book hunting. Everywhere you turn there is another walkway to more books. It’s definitely a store you’ll want to go to with plenty of time on your hands to really make sure you get a look at everything.
If you’ve made it this far into our story, you’ve probably noticed how wet we all look (it was pouring rain that day). Ignore that, folks, focus on the books. LOOK AT THEM ALL. I imagine one day this is what my house is going to look like. I like to picture it more like J.H Gordon but we all know the truth.
I went home with 2 new books from Barely Bent and if you’re keeping up with our crawl you’ll have remembered the 6 I went home with from Printed Word. Here I purchased myself a copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (going to be diving into that soon!) and Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.
As always, we had to ask shop owner, Chantal Vulker, what her favourite books are and without missing a beat she answered:
All The Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doer
Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
Three Day Road – Joseph Boyden
If you haven’t read any Boyden yet, please do yourself a favour and pick one up.
I thoroughly enjoyed perusing the shelves at Barely Bent. It’s definitely worth checking out.
Until next time, folks, happy reading!
** Let’s play a quick game of Count the Book Puns. You count and let me know. I’ll just be over here reading.
