Ray Tropiano never thought his life would turn out the way it has.
“Ask me 20 years ago what I’d be doing in my retirement, I certainly wouldn’t have guessed this.”
Ray and his wife Trish Tropiano are opening up a second location for their business, Re-Read Used Books.
The secondhand bookstore originally opened in 2015 in Stittsville by owner Dean McIntosh as a way to “ease into his retirement.” After eight years, McIntosh decided to officially retire and looked into selling the shop.
Ray was thinking about buying but needed to check with his wife. “I joked with Trish,” Ray said. “I said, ‘do you want to buy a bookstore?’”
Trish immediately said ‘yes.’
Neither thought they would actually make it through to the point of sale, but they went for it anyway.
“Now, here we are, opening a second store a couple years later,” Ray said.
Their second shop is now open in Riverside South, at the new Armstrong Plaza, 160 Blanca St.
Their decision to expand was “kind of rushed,” Trish said, but they saw an opportunity as the plaza was being built.
The couple live in Riverside South with their two children, close to the new store. “The plaza was going up, it’s in our neighbourhood … we had to jump on it.”
Both are very happy with the location, which Trish calls “amazing.”
The Tropianos feel all the development in the area made for a perfect spot. Aside from the new plaza, there are large housing developments nearby and the new LRT Line 2 expansion opened last January, with the station located just across Earl Armstrong Road from the plaza.
“People (can) read and take the train,” Trish said. “There’s also a bakery and cafe going in (on the other side).”
“The location can’t get any better than this,” said Ray.
Their community in Riverside South made the decision to expand even easier for the Tropianos.
“We’ve had great support from the neighbourhood, too, they’ve been very excited,” said Ray. “The feedback has been nothing but positive.”
Members of the larger Ottawa community have also been eager to visit Re-Read when it opens its second store.
Manotick resident Kaitlyn Densmore looks forward to making the drive. The new store is a lot closer than the Stittsville location, so she already has plans to visit.
Densmore has been to Re-Read Stittsville and had a great experience.
“I thought the staff member that they had was super nice,” she said. “I find sometimes that these (independent) bookstores can be hard to go through, but I thought (Re-Read) was really well organized which made it super easy. It made me want to go back.”
Densmore works in the Ottawa Public Library and borrows most of her books from the system. However, when she decides to go book shopping, she likes to visit independent stores before turning to larger chains.
“I prefer to support local (businesses) and to know that my books are being sourced from people who care about the content,” she said.
Densmore may be typical of a trend. According to the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association (CIBA), there has been a resurgence in independent bookselling in Canada since 2015. In the U.S., according to the American Booksellers Association, the number of independent bookstores rose nearly 75 per cent from 1,635 in 2020 to 2,863 in 2025.
“It’s been really great to see that resurgence of the energy behind new stores that are opening and the people supporting them,” said Nadine Vassallo-Frohne, vice president of book sales at Bookshop.org.
Bookshop is an American organization that encourages and allows readers to connect with independent booksellers.
“Our aim is to give independent booksellers a way to compete with the book retail giants like the Amazons of the world and to fulfill the needs of customers who want books shipped directly to home without losing the ability to support their local indie,” Vassallo-Frohne said.
On the site, readers can find nearby independent bookstores. If they don’t find what they’re looking for, they can also buy books directly from Bookshop, with a share of proceeds split across all affiliated indie stores across the U.S.
Bookshop also operates in the U.K. and, although there is no active plan for expansion, Vassallo-Frohne said they “would love to be in more places,” including Canada.
In Canada, Indie Bookstores allows readers to discover independent shop. It is owned by the CIBA, which supports indie booksellers across Canada.
Re-Read is not associated with the CIBA, but it is something Ray and Trish would “like to look into … once we’re done all this.”
‘All this’ is the setting up and grand opening of the new store. After they get settled, the couple have plans to connect with other independent booksellers, to go around the city and meet fellow store owners. They are also interested in possibly joining Ottawa independent bookseller events in the future, such as the Ottawa Indie Bookstore Crawl.
Despite not being a part of the CIBA, Re-Read and the Tropianos are very involved with local authors and often host events such as book signings. Their grand opening party will be a two-day event featuring 16 local authors on April 18 and 19 from 1 to 4 p.m.
And although its forte is secondhand books, solely acquired from community donations, there are some new books available for purchase at Re-Read.
The only rule? They have to be from local, independent authors in Ottawa and surrounding communities.
Community is the most important thing for Ray and Trish, which was especially true when they bought Re-Read Stittsville.
Just two months after their October purchase, Ray was diagnosed with lacrimal carcinoma, or cancer of the tear duct, in December 2023.
“It’s a very rare cancer,” said Ray. “So much so that we don’t know what stage you’re in, we don’t know survival rates, nothing.”
In April 2024, Ray had to have his left eye surgically removed. Coming up on two years later, he is still cancer-free and “just starting to feel like (himself) again.”
“Community, friends, family, our neighbours, everybody kind of just rallied around us and got us through it all,” Ray said.
The community that independent booksellers create is the clear pull for everyone in the space. Vassallo-Frohne says it is a big positive about their job.
“It’s nice to be a part of a community where everybody’s kind of united in our values,” they said.
Densmore said she appreciates when stores focus on their community partners, which she sees indie stores doing more often than larger chains.
As for Ray and Trish, some customers have already asked if they plan to open a third location in the city.
“I don’t think there will be another store,” said Ray. “You can never say never. But I’m saying no right now.”
Trish just laughed.
“Ask him again in two years.”
