This Ain't the Rosedale Library was an independent bookstore located in Kensington Market

Kensington Market

Kensington Market is a distinctive multicultural neighbourhood in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Market is an older neighbourhood and one of the city's most well-known. In November 2006, it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada. Robert Fulford wrote in 1999 that "Kensington...

, Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

. Formerly located in the Church and Wellesley

Church and Wellesley

Church and Wellesley is an LGBT-oriented community located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is roughly bounded by Gerrard Street to the south, Yonge Street to the west, Charles Street to the north, and Jarvis Street to the east, with the core commercial strip located along Church Street from...

 neighbourhood, the store moved to Kensington Market in May 2008, and closed in June 2010 after failing to pay rent.

This Ain't the Rosedale Library was opened in 1979 by Charles Huisken, and Daniel Bazuin became co-owner in 1981. It was a general interest bookstore promoting small press

Small press

Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...

 publications, nontraditional fiction, graphic novels, countercultural nonfiction and features one of the largest selections of contemporary poetry in Canada.

The bookstore had a rich history of author visits and readings, ranging from William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...

 and Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author who wrote The Rum Diary , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 .He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to...

 to Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel is an American cartoonist. Originally best known for the long-running comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For, in 2006 she became a best-selling and critically acclaimed author with her graphic memoir Fun Home.-Early life:...

 and Sarah Waters

Sarah Waters

Sarah Waters is a British novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society, such as Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith.-Childhood:Sarah Waters was born in Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1966....

. Local luminaries such as Stuart Ross

Stuart Ross

Stuart Ross is a Canadian fiction writer, poet, editor, and creative-writing instructor.Ross was born in Toronto's north end in 1959 and grew up in the Borough of North York. He began writing at a very young age and was first published at age 16 by Books by Kids . This book, The Thing in Exile,...

, Joey Comeau

Joey Comeau

Joey Comeau is a Canadian writer from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is best known for writing the text of the webcomic A Softer World and for his novels Lockpick Pornography and Overqualified. His work is difficult to classify by genre...

, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a Toronto-based poet, writer, educator and social activist. Her writing and performance art focuses on documenting the stories of queer and trans people of color, abuse survivors, mixed-race people and diasporic South Asians and Sri Lankans...

 and Marnie Woodrow

Marnie Woodrow

Marnie Woodrow is a Canadian writer and editor. She has also worked as a researcher/writer for TV and radio.Woodrow has published two short fiction collections, Why We Close Our Eyes When We Kiss in 1991 and In the Spice House in 1996, and the novel Spelling Mississippi in 2002...

 made regular appearances to read and teach.

In 2005, The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

's Jeremy Mercer named This Ain't "Canada's best independent bookstore," and the 8^th best in the world.