CBC Radio is playing from an old-school boombox. Owl posters, paintings and artwork hang everywhere, making you curious how many you can find.
Pepper the Cat, is purring next to a pile of books welcoming everyone in her home, Fredericton’s Owl’s Nest.
For 23 years, the second-hand bookstore on Queen Street offered everything from old magazines, retro-records and over 300,000 books.
Ben Rogers visited Pepper’s home a couple times.
“You never know what you will find,” he says. “I like to find the hidden treasures.”
The maze, made from hundreds of bookshelves, makes it hard to avoid getting lost in time and space. There are books everywhere; in boxes resting on little steps; and, in big piles on the floor.
All you hear is buzzing neon lights and the wooden planks creaking under your feet.
In between the labyrinth of books is Thomas McCarthy who is hunting for a copy of short stories.
“I like the disorganization. You see a book and it just clicks with you.”
Leaving the Owl’s Nest with empty hands seems unrealistic. The temptation of getting the book you’ve read as a child, the novel you’ve heard so many good critics talk about, or the one that has been on your reading list forever is always there.
And so, before you leave, Pepper the Cat will probably wink at you, because she knows that another book has found a new home.
