Irvine's bookstore since 2016.
Ines Calloway spent nineteen years as a school librarian before opening Paperwhale in a former video rental store. The old return slot in the door is our book drop now. Order online and we'll have it on the hold shelf in about two hours.
Browse the shelves What's on this monthStaff picks
Handwritten on the shelf, typed up here"I read it in four nights and was useless at the register the whole week. Kingsolver at full strength."Demon Copperhead · Barbara Kingsolver · $21
"A shipwreck, a mutiny and two crews telling opposite stories. I gave this to my dad and he called me at 11 PM to argue about it."The Wager · David Grann · $20
"The crayons write letters of complaint, and kids at story time shout the answers. Mina reads it at least once a month and nobody has gotten tired of it."The Day the Crayons Quit · Drew Daywalt · $19
On the shelves
This month in the shop
Free. Save a seat so we set out enough chairs.
About the whale
There is a whale-shaped doorstop by the register.1 In 2016 Ines's daughter Maya, who was four, pointed at it and called it the paper whale. The shop was going to be named something much more serious.
Theo buys fiction and nonfiction and knits during slow Tuesdays. Mina runs the children's corner and reads aloud on Saturdays. Gus is the cat.2
If we don't have a book, we'll order it. It usually takes three or four days, and we text you when it's on the hold shelf.
Looking for something specific?
Tell us the title, or tell us the last book you loved and we'll guess. Theo and Mina read these, and one of them usually answers within the hour.
Or text (949) 555-0119.
Visit
3820 Irvine Center Dr, Suite 108
Irvine, CA 92618
Free parking in the shared lot
Hours
Monday to Saturday, 10 to 8
Sunday, 11 to 6