Arts and Entertainment

For the love of reading: Readers’ Choice on Broadway brings used books to the community for over 25 years

August 13, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Veronica Cvet loves being part of Broadway’s history, as she sees it, through her used books store at 151 Broadway, which is part of a heritage-designated row of buildings in Orangeville’s downtown. The people of Orangeville are very proud of their municipality’s determination to keep the essence of Broadway as it is: beautiful, with shops and restaurants suitable to its image.

Including Cvet’s Readers’ Choice.

In an interview this week with the Citizen, she emphasized how much it means to her to be part of this neighbourhood and tend her store.

“Once you’ve been doing it for so long,” she said, “it’s just like family; you just do. Every time I come in, I think, ‘hello store.’ It has a life to it with people coming in every day. It has supported me in my life. And I love the history of Broadway, being part of it. There is something cool about being part of this local history.”

Cvet says she wants to stay at her store until she is 80.

Her own history with it began some years ago when her friend Sharon Thomas opened in 1997 with Mad Hatter and then Blooming. Once a week, in front of Blooming, they would take a folding table with a chequered tablecloth and chairs to sit outside and have lunch. Thomas told her she was looking for a business partner, and they moved into 151 Broadway to run a bookstore.

It made sense to Cvet, as she was an avid reader.

“I just thought I could do this,” she recalled. “I never had a business before. After a while, I asked Sharon if she wanted to sell me her half of the business and she agreed – she was getting into other things.”

Cvet offered the impressive statistic that she sells up to 20,000 books per year, flying in the face of the notion that people do not want to read books anymore in favour of tech alternatives.

Her comment was that people say reading books is a dying thing, but, as she put it, “It isn’t here. Tech has not been that big an influence.”

When a mention was made that the value of the location of the shop must help, Cvet denied it. Her observations have taught her that what is in the store is the prime incentive for shoppers.

Visitors from far and wide come to Readers’ Choice as regulars to see what is new in her vast array of books. All the books are used books, and in her routine of keeping her stock up and watching for trends, Cvet goes shopping for books once to three times a week. What she learns as she brings books back is always interesting.

Her mantra is that if the shop has what people want, they will travel to shop there. So, the content, not the location, matters most. In a nutshell, “Either you have what they want or you don’t,” Cvet said.

This includes the popularity of her line of products, including some t-shirts, puzzles, and read-aloud children’s books, to name a few.

Orangeville, with its charming shops and restaurants, is a destination.

When it comes to promoting Orangeville, however, Cvet noted that the videos made about the town might not be as useful promotion tools as humour could be. She explained this by talking about an event at a hotel that discussed the use of humour rather than videos and remarked that the town’s “Love, Orangeville” campaign is, to her eyes, only a repetition of “I love New York.”

She certainly has developed her understanding of running her business over the years, saying, “You have to keep up your standard.”

Business is not a hobby for Cvet. She noted that her business is what supports her, and it is important to keep working; even when she travels, she is on the lookout to buy books.

High-priced books that are valuable for their age and condition are another issue, but one Cvet does not pursue. She said she had an Anne of Green Gables book signed by Montgomery, which, after holding on to it for eight years, finally sold for $5,000.

Still on her best-selling list is Agatha Christie for being readable for people in their early teens. Classics are making a comeback, and Stephen King and Louise Penny are still loved. The 1940s books enjoy popularity with the likes of Robertson Davies.

“It’s a good business to be in,” said Cvet. “I hope books will always be around.”

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