Book buyers peruse Book City in the store’s early days. (Photo courtesy Book City)

Ian Donker grew up with Book City. 

His parents, Frans and Gini Donker, opened the first location of the Toronto independent bookstore in 1976 when he was two years old. 

This month, the mini-chain marks its 50th anniversary, and Donker, who took over the business when his father retired in 2014, says he can’t remember a time when Book City wasn’t part of his life, noting it often served as a babysitter for him and his two younger siblings. 

“When my mom needed my dad to take us, he just took us to work and showed us the kids’ section,” Donker says. “When we got a little older and a little bit more rambunctious, if we weren’t reading books when he was taking care of us, we were stickering books.”

The first Book City was located on Bloor Street West in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood. The store featured prominently in the family’s life: its phone number was the first one Donker memorized (he and his siblings would sometimes call their father at the store to say goodnight); it was where Donker discovered he loved to read; and it was where he first saw the faces of the regular customers and long-time staff that he would continue to see for decades. 

Book City grew into a mini-chain a little over a decade later, with the opening of a location on the Danforth on Toronto’s east side in 1988 and a third location in Bloor West Village in 1990. A fourth store followed in 1996 in the Beach, with a fifth opening in 2000 at Yonge and St. Clair. The chain, at its height, had six locations — including a third Bloor Street location — but is back to four today. 

The original Annex location closed in 2014 in the face of a looming lease renewal and a changing neighbourhood. The decision was a difficult one to make, and Donker says his father took that moment as a cue to retire. The Bloor West Village store, which closed in 2012, reopened in a new space a few doors down from its first location, which Donker says made the transition a little easier.

Book City, which has long done a brisk business in remaindered books, also keeps a nearly 4,000-square-foot warehouse in Scarborough. This is where they store the remaindered books they travel to England and the U.S. to purchase, as well as the bestsellers they keep in stock to avoid selling out when a title is hot.

For Donker, whose father died in 2024, marking 50 years of the family-owned business is bittersweet without the man he worked alongside for most of his career. 

“It’s had its ups and downs, obviously — both of us have big personalities and very strong opinions, and that meant it wasn’t always easy, but it’s hard after 50 years not to have him around for this,” Donker says. “I will say, though, it is easier to plan a party and a celebration, and do the marketing and promotions for it, without his two cents.”

Book City will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in store the week of September 8, with a Customer Appreciation Day on September 12. 

Bookselling has changed since Book City first opened in 1976 – from computerizing systems in the ’80s to weathering the competition from big-box bookstores to adapting to online sales and ebooks – and staying in business has required making adjustments, including moving locations if necessary as neighbourhoods change. Donker says the business’s continued success is due to a combination of the joint effort of staff and publishers; choosing the right locations; loyal book buyers; and a little bit of luck. 

“Maybe something between having a great location, good customers, and staff that are willing to stay for very long periods of time and create the atmosphere and the relationships that you need to be a part of a neighbourhood,” he says. “Somewhere in that mix we’ve been lucky enough to have it and nurture it over and over again for 50 years.”