Brown’s Books

From a customer service perspective I had a super experience in this store, and the selection when I was there was so good that if I hadn’t stopped at the number of books I could carry, I’d now be homeless.
From a book trading perspective, however, I was less impressed. I’d brought in some pretty nice books that I’d been saving to offset the cost of my next purchase, and was credited with next to nothing for them — something like $ 5 where I think at another seller I would have been looking at $ 20ish. I’ve only traded with them once so maybe the books were just so valueless… but I don’t think so.

I was on the hunt for mini dictionaries for a mini Valentines Day project and have gone to every book store in the city that wasn’t the main chains. I came across this one and the guy who owns the place was super helpful. Even though I didn’t find the book that I was looking for, he did help me and I did find other things of interest. Organized store.

Adventurous Review
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk into a book store straight from the world of Harry Potter? or the same feeling of stepping into an antique store that seems to radiate mystery and intrigue? Brown’s Books is one of those few places in town that has given me that vibe the moment I stepped through their doors.
I was having tea in the area and decided to drop by simply because it was listed as Near By on the Unilocal app. I love reading certain books and simple attracted to cool looking books, so I didn’t even hesitate when deciding to walk over.
The store itself is deceptive. The front only reveals have the store as it is double the width and goes pretty deep. This place isn’t like the Chapters or Indigo book stores you are used to. There’s no fancy decoration, cheap toys and cute trinkets when paying, and you definitely won’t find a bombardment of «editors choice» or «book of the month» ads in your face. What you will find is a HUGE collection of old paper back books and what appears to be DIY shelves to house everything. It is actually quite an experience to walk down the isles of wooden shelves and books that are older than me by years! The only thought going through my head is wondering how many people have lost their lives in these novels, and how many detectives there are solving what seems to be a limitless amount of creativity.
If you’re a mystery book lover, you simply must come take a look. They don’t call this the house of mystery for no reason.

This was the only place in the Lower mainland that had the book I wanted, and I mean literally the only place. I phoned 10 bookstores… Thankfully they had it or I would have been stuck in the middle of a series and would have had to order it online with a 12 dollar shipping fee. No thank you!
The bookstore is really cute too, and as a «house of mystery» they defiantly have my heart. Love love love mystery books and they were stacked to the rafters with them. I will be back!

This is a cute shop in Burnaby Heights. It’s been there for a very long time, and I believe the building itself is about 100 years old.
They have a wide selection of books, and I believe it’s actually two stores in one. The display when you walk by is really cute.
This is a must stop in shop if you’re out and about the Heights.

Horrible seller… they sell books on Abes Books online and I ordered a book back in November from them… never got the book and after numerous emails to them that all went unanswered Abes finally refunded my money. My first mistake was ordering from a book seller in Canada… never again.

Brown’s is fantastic. Definitely one of the best used bookstores in Vancouver. A major bonus for me is how close it is to my house!
It is much larger inside than it seems from the sidewalk, it takes up 2 retail spaces.
Although they specialize in Mystery books, they also have tons of other genres available, both fiction and non.
One of my favourite things about Brown’s is the online catalogue that seems to be kept very up-​to-​date. You can search for a book by title, author, description, or keyword. Not only does it show every copy they have in stock of the book, they also make sure to put the condition the book is in. The website is really handy for those who don’t live nearby, because it can be pretty out of the way.
It’s also great just for browsing! You never know what you’ll find.

This used book store is one of the lower mainland’s hidden gems. One step into this seemingly cramped little store reveals aisle after aisle of every kind of book you can imagine. The place is actually very large inside, and as one other Unilocaler wrote does have a huge selection of Mysteries (they even happened to have some in French!). The staff is very helpful and friendly and I always find what I’[m looking for. The prices are very decent and they have an interesting collection of antique and first edition books. I recommend this place to any avid reader or book collector.

This is a not only a friendly little used bookstore (imagine that!) but it’s like 9 booksellers under one conjoined roof! You enter on the one side, which is mainly devoted to mystery novels of all stripes. Stepping over the threshold into the second half, you’ll find selections of books from several smaller independent used booksellers, who all have a slightly different focus. It does mean, however, that the store is less laid out according to genre than to who is selling it. But the sellers all seem to specialize, so you’ll still generally find nature books here, travel books there, children’s books over here.
The store is light and airy, and it’s a pleasant atmosphere for browsing.
I’ve made several finds here, and I love that the owners always like to discuss the books as they’re ringing them up. If you love books as much I do, don’t pass Brown’s by.