Spartacus Books is a non-profit, volunteer and collectively run bookstore and resource centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1973. Spartacus sells new and used books, zines, comics, magazines, CDs, videos, T-shirts, patches, pins, posters and cards. Spartacus Books is one of the longest-running collectively run bookstores in North America. It is usually described as a radical bookstore, and among its sections are anarchism, women studies, LGBTQ literature, poetry, indigenous studies and indigenous literature, activist organizing, socialist theory, history, ecology, zines and chapbooks from local writers/artists, a section of non-specialized used books, plus DVD rentals. The building where it had long been located (311 West Hastings Street) burned down on April 25, 2004. The store once again opened for business on February 12, 2006, at 319 West Hastings Street, immediately adjacent to the old location. However, due to the increasing cost of real estate in Vancouver, the store was forced to move again to 684 East Hastings Street. In 2014 it moved out of the Downtown Eastside to 3378 Findlay Street and again in 2022 to 1983 Commercial Drive. History Spartacus Books was originally started at Simon Fraser University by Roger Perkins, who worked at the SFU bookstore. It was initially called the Spartacus Socialist Education Society, however over the years it has become a meeting place for people of divergent political views. However, they all agreed that they needed to get books and other educational materials that either were difficult to get through any other means. The bookstore originally was in a space shared by a pool-hall run by the American Exiles Association, a group of American military deserters and war resisters. Later, it moved to 311 West Hastings Street, where it operated for 30 years until the fire in 2004. Fire A fire started at Spartacus Books on April 25, 2004, at 6:00 AM in a back dumpster behind the store. There has been an investigation into the fire. However, the cause of the fire wasn't certain. By the time the fire was put out, the entire building had gone up in flames and Spartacus Books had lost all of its inventory as well as materials detailing the history of the store. Spartacus Books has a large collective, and the collective operates by writing in a store journal. The store journal is an analog version of a wiki. Each volunteer would write down important information