A family-owned bookstore in Stittsville, Ont. is giving tens of thousands of used books a second life. Re-Read Used Books offers its customers a wide variety of used books to peruse, as well as creative creations from local artists and artisans. The owners, Ray and Trisha Tropiano, got the idea to run a used bookstore during the early stages of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in spring of 2020.

“Everything was shut down, and what you could do was very limited. You couldn’t travel. You couldn’t go on a date night,” Ray recalls. “Trisha is an avid reader, and I’m a scientist, so I read a lot for work, but I hadn’t been reading a lot of fiction at that time. I was quarantined at home, and she said I should start. So, she gave me a bunch of material, and I got right back into it. Then I decided I wanted to build my book collection up again, because I got rid of a lot of the stuff every time I moved. So, that became our date night. We’d go out to used bookstores and hunt for treasures.” 

The couple quickly became regular customers at Re-Read Used Books.

“It was one of our favourite stops. We always found something we liked, and it was always reasonably priced,” Ray says.

A few years later, while the couple was scrolling their Facebook pages, they read a post stating that Re-Read Used Books was up for sale.

“The owner was going to retire. So, I asked Trisha, ‘You want to buy a bookstore?’ I was joking, but she looked at me very seriously and said, ‘Oh my God, yes! That would be so cool,’” Ray recalls. 

After meeting with the former owner in 2023, Ray and Trisha decided to purchase the store. 

The couple’s favourite aspect of running the bookstore is digging through all the donations that regularly come pouring into the store, thanks to the generosity of Ottawa area bookworms. The bookstore’s stock is almost entirely comprised of donations.

“There are so many donations every day. The table for donations is always piled high,” Trisha says. “It’s like Christmas every day.”

While the store sells a wide variety of books, the most popular genres are mystery/thrillers and romance. Re-Read Used Books is also one of a handful of independent bookstores in the area that have a comprehensive horror section. 

“Horror isn’t the most popular, but people are really happy that we made a horror section, because the store didn’t have one before,” Trisha says. “It was the first thing we did, because that’s my favorite genre.”

While some readers may prefer to dig through the shelves for a fun scavenger hunt, others have the option of searching the store’s digital inventory system for specific titles. People can also sign up to a “watch” feature for books, where they will be notified if a book they’re looking for gets logged into the store’s inventory.

Moving challenges

When the bookstore’s lease came up at the end of 2023, the couple had to find a new location. Ray and Trisha looked for a more ideal spot that would offer enhanced foot traffic. They found their spot at 1626 Stittsville Main Street, adjacent to a local diner and a Service Ontario branch.

“We see increased foot traffic now. I think it was a smart move, one of the best decisions we made when we took over the store,” Ray says. “It’s a used bookstore, so you really have to think outside the box.” 

While the spot was ideal, the timing was not. It was late December, and Ray had fallen seriously ill. The couple needed to lean hard on their manager, Fran, to run the shop while they looked after Ray’s health.

“Fran took care of everything when we were out of commission,” Trisha says.

“We had such good employees taking care of everything. It was all good,” Ray adds.

To help the couple move 20,000 books through the Christmas holidays and perform some needed renovations, they leaned on family and friends who happily came to their aid.

“The location had to be refitted because it was an old chiropractor’s office. We knocked out some walls to open up the space,” Ray says. 

Testing out ideas

Owning a used bookstore and having it stand out against the crowd requires a great deal of planning and trying out new concepts to enhance customers’ shopping experiences. Ray and Trisha are always looking for new opportunities to improve the store. They set it up with comfortable sitting areas for people to enjoy a beverage and read their latest purchase. They’ve also set up a new attraction called, “Blind date with a book.” 

“It’s a random, good quality used book, wrapped up it and pitched like a blind date. People don’t know what they’re getting, and they think it’s a great idea. People are all asking for specific ones, like a horror or a mystery. There’s a demand for it,” Ray says. “It’s all about thinking up new ideas, looking for them online, or seeing what other people are doing.”

“I get a lot of ideas from Instagram,” Trisha adds. “I saw the blind date with a book thing was super big, and we had some extra books at home, so we wrapped them up, stuck in a few goodies – a bag of tea, bookmarks. The first day, a couple of them sold.”

Another idea that has garnered a lot of interest is a book-filled Advent calendar that is offered through the store.

“We do Christmas Advent calendars with 24 wrapped books. We make hundreds of Advent calendars, so it takes up a lot of time. We start making them in January for the next year,” Ray says. “It’s a big revenue stream for us, and people love it.”

Hiring misconceptions

While many retail stores are having difficulty finding people to work their shops, Re-Read Used Books is not one of those stores, although getting large amounts of resumes doesn’t necessarily mean the right fit. Ray says people that apply for a job often have misconceptions about what it takes to run a bookstore.

“People who love books are like, ‘I’d like to get a job here.’ But then there’s a misconception that if they get a job here, that they’re reading books all day,” he says. “There may only be 10 customers in the store at a time, but there’s a lot of other stuff that goes on behind the scenes that has to happen to keep this place running smoothly. There’s a misconception that when you own a bookstore that there’s nothing to do. You just put books on the shelf, and you can spend the rest of the day having a tea and reading a book until somebody comes in to buy something.”

Supporting local authors and artists

Ray and Trisha have started hosting regular events for local authors to help them spread the word about their latest books. 

“I feel like the authors that come are just happy to come out, even if they saw five people. It has been great. They always come out of these things saying they loved the opportunity to have some exposure,” Ray says. “We had eight romance authors come and share the space next door with the cafe. They close at around 2:30 p.m., and so we kind of negotiated with them to keep their restaurant open for the authors at 1 p.m. and stay open until about 5 p.m. The feedback was fantastic from the people that attended, and the authors.”

For October, Trisha reached out to the Ottawa horror author community and set up a special event with 10 authors coming out to showcase their books. Trisha and Ray have also planned a Christmas-themed event for December with book-related crafts and other gifts available.

“People are approaching us saying, ‘Oh, we heard you’re doing a Christmas market. Is there any room left?’ So, word is getting out. It’s good,” Trisha says.

In addition to displaying the works of indie authors, the bookstore showcases the work of local artists and artisans.

“We brought in local artists’ works so they can showcase their art and sell it,” Trisha says.

“We also sell other locally made, book-related items like bookmarks, book jacket covers, and greeting cards that people have handmade to offer people when they come in to get their used books,” Ray adds.

Future goals

While most of the future plans for the store involve improving the organization of the store, Ray and Trisha are considering some additional fun ideas for their customers.

“We’re talking about doing a subscription box, because the advent calendars do so well. We want to try something we can do all year,” Trisha says.

To learn more about Re-Read Used Books, visit: www.rereadusedbooks.com.