It Started With a Question
In the autumn of 2017, Margaret Chen and David Okafor found themselves at a crowded literary festival afterparty in Toronto, wedged between a potted fern and a stack of unsold poetry chapbooks. Someone asked a simple question: "Why does every bookstore feel the same?"
That question wouldn't leave them alone. Over the following months, they sketched ideas on napkins, debated in coffee shops, and eventually quit their day jobs to build something different. In June 2018, Book Island opened its doors on King Street West.
The idea was simple but ambitious: create a bookstore that felt less like a retail space and more like a literary playground. We wanted browsing to feel like treasure hunting. We wanted readers to stumble upon authors they'd never heard of and leave feeling like they'd discovered something secret and wonderful.
Six years later, we've hosted over 200 author events, shipped books to every province and territory, and connected thousands of readers with stories that changed them. But we're still that same scrappy operation at heart — still obsessed with finding the perfect book for each person who walks through our door (or lands on our website).
