Halifax - John W. Doull Bookseller

A secondhand bookshop to die for

Welcome to the home of John W. Doull, Bookseller. Please search or browse our inventory of hard-to-find, out-of-print, used, and rare books. At present there are over 39,500 titles listed, with many now having accompanying portraits.

If you can't find what you like please fill out our search form and we will search our off-line inventory (another 100,000 or so books) for you. Gift certificates are also available in any amount you wish and can be mailed to the happy recipient of your choice.

We also offer appraisal services.

The opening paragraphs of the John W Doull Bookseller site.   A tidy, well organized, and laid out site is no preparation for entering his shop in Halifax. 

You walk through a double set of doors separated by a small porch essential for the cold winters in Halifax.  Wait a minute, it was wet and windy as I struggled through the doors furiously trying to fold up my umbrella and take of my soaked raincoat when I burst into a REAL SECONDHAND BOOKSHOP.  The sort of shop you dream about with overfilled bookshelves rising ever upwards, small spaces between them with just enough room walk, extra books taking up what spare floor space and there on my right a long counter piled high with books completely blocking your view.  As I walked further into the shop, breathing in the aroma of books, I spied a break in counter books and saw the shopkeeper busy at a small table.  A table covered in, of course, books.

“Hullo, nice shop” I said.   “Feel free to browse” was my greeting which I did off and on for the next two days.

After getting directions to my areas that interested - the Nautical and the Polar sections - I headed off. 


As luck would have it, they were next to each other.  The Nautical section was at the head of the stairs straight through the while the Polar section was immediately to the right just past the brown door and before the canvas gate.

Now the stairs - two flights separated by a landing.  Piles of books stacked at the outer edges of the stairs and landing leaving a narrow but adequate walkway.

 I reached the Polar books get out my camera and take several pictures needed to describe the area.  The stitched photo below shows the polar section, about 400-500 books (I didn’t count them) including the additional boxes and books on the floor.  Not shown are the large format books that continue across the top of brown door.  

This was 'heaven' for a collector of Antarctic books.  Not only did I find lots of books, but also with running in the rain and moving and sorting through the boxes. I got my daily exercise.

The shop may appear to a non-book collector to be chaotic and a bit of mess and bring forth thoughts like ‘where do I start’ or ‘help, let me get out of here’.  However, the shop, like the database on the web site is organized.  Books are in categories with quirky signs.

Although the books within each section have, some sort of grouping thankfully there is no attempt at sorting by author.  Because of the wonderful discoveries, I made while browsing for books on my want list. My pile of purchases grows only limited by my baggage allowance and the postage costs to New Zealand.

This shop is a must visit if you are in Halifax.  Why not go to Halifax, browse through this shop for yourself, and then take the train across Nova Scotia back to Toronto.  Do this in the autumn and see the colour and when you arrive in Toronto you will find plenty of secondhand and antiquarian bookshops?