Good Dog Books
724 King Street
Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

The trio behind Good Dog Books first sold books together at Lunenburg Bound, one of three independent bookstores in the seaside tourist town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, for two years before turning their attention inland.

Michael Higgins opened Lunenburg Bound in 2015, trading a career in carpentry and boatbuilding for the equally romantic – if also financially precarious – trade of bookselling. 

“The opportunity to spend my days in a bookshop was irresistible, so I opened a bookshop from which I could always look out and see the sea,” he tells Q&Q.

During the pandemic shutdown of 2020 he was joined at Lunenburg Bound by his child Madelaine Higgins, who was looking for a career pivot of their own. They came on board to help with online sales integration and never left. Tyler LeBlanc joined the team in 2022, and two years later, they opened Good Dog Books about 20 km inland, in Bridgewater, looking to sell books together in a second location where they could focus more on community building.

Bridgewater had supported an independent bookseller for more than 40 years; when it shut down in 2011, Sagor’s Bookstore had been the oldest existing bookstore in the Maritimes. Bridgewater’s used bookstore also closed that year, and the town’s Christian bookstore closed in 2015.

Good Dog Books opened in July 2024 in a downtown building that is also home to a burrito bar, a hair salon, a brow bar, a paint-your-own-ceramics studio, and a wellness collective. The store is 750 square feet and counts as its staff its three owners and co-founders. 

The trio recently spoke to Q&Q via email about what the first year of business has been like in their second bookstore. 

Why open Good Dog Books in 2024? What was it about Bridgewater that inspired you to open the store? 

The three of us really enjoy selling books in Lunenburg, but it is such a tourism-focused market. We wanted to replicate the success of Lunenburg Bound in a more locally focused community. Bridgewater, our regional hub and a town that is seeing steady growth, was the perfect place to attempt to establish a community-oriented bookstore.

How has the community and its readers responded to the store?

The community has embraced Good Dog Books in such an incredible way. We have a huge host of regulars with an eclectic and broad range of interests. Their demand for fresh stories keeps us on our toes, making sure we have our shelves stocked with new and exciting titles at all times. Every day, someone comes in and thanks us for bringing a new bookstore to town, and that is a great feeling. 

How do you reach potential readers?

We advertise in our hyper-local newspaper The Lunenburg Barnacle, which distributes in our communities. We’ve partnered with other local businesses such as Old Town Records and Pearl’s Vintage for pop-up events, which draw a new and different audience. Recently, we collaborated with our local library branch on an event for Indigenous history month. We also post regularly on various social media accounts, and poster around our communities for special events.

What are your goals for the bookstore? Does the store have any special focus?

Our primary goal is to serve as a “third space” for our community. We recently hosted our first touring musician, and seeing the community use Good Dog as a safe space to rest, breastfeed, or stop by for a chat has been deeply rewarding. Seeing families stop in to read a picture book together on the couch is always a highlight of our day.

The three of us have quite different tastes, and we all contribute to ordering, so that inevitably leads to an eclectic collection. We’ve seen a lot of interest in genre fiction from our clients, so we’ve been trying to build out our mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, and horror sections to reflect the desires of our customers. I think we have a reputation for having a surprisingly diverse selection given our relatively small space, and that is something we’re all proud of. 

What has been most surprising or unexpected about opening a bookstore or about your first year in business?

It has been the demographics of our customers. We see tons of young people coming in looking for books. Teenagers looking to read the classics, tweens picking up the next book in their favourite series, and folks in their early 20s picking up titles the day they are released. Often people doubt that younger generations are reading, but from what I’ve seen here, that is absolutely not true. –Tyler LeBlanc

I’d say that we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the community’s excitement to have a bookstore in town – even the staff at the local Coles have been referring customers to us, since they can’t do special orders! –Madelaine Higgins

This interview has been edited and condensed.