This is without a doubt the best book store in town! The staff is friendly and knowledgable and they have the best selection of manga in town! If they don't have what you want they will order it in for you.

Bolen Books is a Victoria institution that should not be missed. It is one of the main reasons to go to Hillside mall. The selection is vast and the atmosphere is cozy. Looking for something for a hard to shop for individual? Take a browse through Bolens, they have something for everyone!

The Children's section is one of the best I've seen, parents and educators need to shop here!

I love Bolen Books and checking out all the books. But that said, I pretty much buy all my books on Amazon, and recently its all been Kindle books that I buy on my iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Laptop, etc. Still love Bolen Books, but I mostly buy electronic books these days.

My hero came here last year giving a speech and signing two of my books! It was A.J. Jacobs, editor at Esquire Magazine in NY and writer of the three books "The Year of Living Biblically; One Man's Humble Quest to Live the Bible as Literally as Possible," "The Guinea Pig Diaries; My Life as an Experiment," and "The Know-It-All; One Man's Humble Quest to Read the Encyclopedia from A-Z."

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Great selection and range of books, toys, games, maps, etc. The place to go if you love to read.

It's no Powell's, but Bolen Books is a Victoria institution that I hope never, ever goes away. It would break my heart into tiny pieces if they disappeared, and every time I go home to Victoria my insides light up with joy to see Bolen Books. I could easily spend hours upon hours in there, wandering the aisles of books and looking at all the neat gifty things in the store. They've got fantastic... more

I have been visiting Bolen's books since they were a tiny shop in the main mall, and I have always loved going there. They were the first in town to offer serious computer programming books, the only one that would special order books (before the rise of Amazon), and they still have the best selection in Victoria. Even with the popularity of online shopping I still visit Bolen's every week.

Bolen Books is one of Victoria's hidden gems. It is set off of the normal tourist tracks in the hillside shopping district. Its location makes it convenient for commuters going up and down the shelbourne corridor and for students from nearby Camosun and UVic.

The selection of Bolen books is hard to match. The various sections are huge, often with more selection than one usually expects from an... more