#9. Steeple Green Books
📚 STEEPLE GREEN BOOKS
📍 LOCATION: 26 E Petpeswick Road, Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada 🇨🇦
🕰 HOURS: Open 10am-7pm, Tuesday to Sunday (Closed on Mondays)
📲 SOCIAL LINKS:
Instagram: @steeplegreenbooks
Facebook: /steeplegreenbooks
Inside an old church on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore, you’ll find Steeple Green Books, a gorgeous bookshop and thriving event space in the small rural community of Musquodoboit Harbour.
Steeple Green was recommended to me a few times by local maritimers, sending it to the top of my Nova Scotian bookshop bucket list, and I was not disappointed.
Opened in June 2023, the owner, Michael Lake (originally from Dartmouth), spent a decade living in Montreal where he worked for many years at a bookstore, but when he saw the listing for an old church in his home province of Nova Scotia, he took the leap and made the dream of opening his own bookshop a reality.
"Before moving here, I didn't know a lot about the community, except that it was kind of quaint and there were beautiful beaches and nice trails," he said. "Since opening the shop, so many more people have come than I ever could have imagined possible.” - Michael Lake, CBC
Greeted by Frank, the friendly neighbourhood bookshop dog, I was immediately charmed by the soaring cathedral ceilings, warm wood accents, cozy roaring fireplace, candlelit piano, velvet couches, and rows of neatly shelved books. For such a grand space, the layout was homey and inviting.
The shop features new releases, books by local authors, and many impressive backlist titles that you may have forgotten about but always wanted to read, curated by the owner.
Along with the thousands of books in stock, Steeple Green also operates as a gift shop, book club venue, and hosts regular community events from live music concerts, to comedy nights, to author readings, to dance parties.
I personally picked up a hardcover of the New York Times Classic Crossword Puzzles for my flight home (and subsequent Sunday mornings snuggled up at home with a cup of coffee and pencil in hand).
