Another trip down memory lane with a bookmark from a vanished bookstore. And not just any bookstore, but the world’s biggest! I always thought the name World’s Biggest Bookstore was just a come-on, but according to Wikipedia (where the store has its own page) it really was the biggest bookstore in the world, at least for a while. It opened in 1980 and the bookmark here commemorates its tenth anniversary.
This post is also a reminder that if you’re grabbing free bookmarks always get several so that if you ever start posting pictures of your bookmark collection on the Internet — and I’m sure that’s something a lot of you are thinking about doing — you won’t have to post two pictures just to show the front and back.
I went to the WBB a lot when I was a student in Toronto. This is because it was located right downtown basically just across the street from the bus terminal, and I took the bus home a lot. But I always had time for a bit of browsing. So here’s to fond memories of the old book barn, which actually began life as a bowling alley. It closed doors in 2014 so you won’t be seeing any more of their bookmarks!
Book: Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliott Friedman
Alex Good 
Awww, I was all set to make vociferous fun of a closed book store that was the size of my closet. I’m really surprised such a big store shut down before covid. I wonder if overhead costs did them in?
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It’s a pricey location so that probably had something to do with it. Luxury condos now, like most of downtown Toronto.
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Well, no wonder they went out of business. You slept through their busiest hours!
What other businesses are on the verge because you’re not out there doing your part by going into debt? Spend, spend, spend!
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There’s only so much of me to go around . . .
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That’s a cool one. You would have loved Foyles in Charing Cross, also the worlds biggest bookstore.
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The old giant bookstores were fun. The big box ones now have half their floor space given over to other crap.
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Wasn’t Powell’s in Portland the world’s largest indie bookstore? Awesome store….
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From Wikipedia:
At the time of its opening in November 1980, in a converted building that had housed the Olympia bowling alley, it was unchallenged in its claim as the biggest bookstore in the world. Although it retained the name, the Guinness Book of World Records listed the Barnes & Noble College Booksellers location on Fifth Avenue in New York City as the largest bookstore in the world based on floor space, although Powell’s Books of Portland, Oregon, is usually considered the largest based on shelf-space. Nevertheless, World’s Biggest Bookstore claimed the title on the basis that it carried the most titles.
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Shelf space is how I measure my bookstore. Fact!
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Gets expensive. Just putting in a library in my place. Custom bookshelves cost $1000 a linear foot. Not a typo.
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