Used book shops

[rousseau]

I love used book shops. They say they're an endangered species, but the ones I know of seem to be doing okay. I'd like to see recommendations and/or tributes to the great ones in different cities.


Kitchener-Waterloo has four really good used bookshops, which I think is really fantastic for the size of city it is. They're not quaint or pretty, but then that's entirely appropriate for K-W, which is not known for its charming urban vistas.

KW Bookstore (308 King St. W.): Not a looker inside or out, but an excellent overall selection and good prices. I've bought many orange Penguin paperbacks here.

(Photo credit: Google Maps)

Casablanca Bookshop (146 King St. W.): Gruesome name and sign out front. But nicer inside, and they have a half decent selection. Any shop where you can find Will Self secondhand is worthy.

(Photo credit: Unknown)

A Second Look (31 King St. W.): Good selection and atmosphere. Eclectic. This photo is of the old location on Queen Street.

(Photo credit: Google Maps)

Old Goat Books (99 King St. N., Waterloo): Terrific selection of paperbacks. A bit pricier though.

(Photo credit: Google Maps)


London has two super fantastic shops that I know of, and two that I have yet to check out but that I suspect will be worth it. Note also that London actually looks like a real city in the photos below.

City Lights Bookshop (365 Richmond St.): It loses points for the fact that someone behind the counter emitted a clueless "huh?" when I once asked if the name of the shop were in homage to the well known City Lights in San Francisco, but otherwise this is the holy grail: it's labyrinthine, there are books to the ceiling, and you can never take more than two steps before having to say "Excuse me" in order to squeeze by another browser. Trivia: A former owner is Marc Emery, a self-aggrandizing dickhead who is nevertheless a de facto political prisoner in the United States.

(Photo credit: Google Maps)

Attic Books (240 Dundas St.): Beautiful shop with three storeys of creaking hardwood floors. A special basement discount section that always promises a cheap find to savour.

(Photo credit: Google Maps)

P-T Campbell Bookdealer (388 Richmond St.): Haven't been in here yet, but it looks promising.

(Photo credit: Google Maps)

H Sommers Books (436 Richmond St.): Another one I haven't been to yet which I'll have to check out.

(Photo credit: Google Maps)


Stratford, where I live, has three fancy new book shops with discount tables set out for tourists, and one really nice used shop.

Book Stage (126 Waterloo St. S.): Yes, the name is yet another hokey reference to the theatre, and like most things in tourist towns the prices aren't cheap, but this is a charmingly ramshackle place with a good selection run by a sour German expat who softens if you express a sincere interest in literature. He once told me he translated a poem by Goethe into English and published it in chapbook form as a small token of protest against Bush in 2003.

(Photo credit: Google Maps)

[1ajs]

used to work in a rare used outa print book store called Borelis books here in winnipeg for a while was best job i ever had. shame it closed the owner moved to mexico to go back to his love archyoligy in oaxaca vally mexico only to come down with cancer still alive 4yrs later anyhow it was an amazing store as the guy was pasionat about it.

the other stores in town have not even come close to what this store was its a real shame a real big whole yet to be filled

[Aylmer]

I have fond memories of a used books store in downtown Winnipeg; Aquabooks. The inside looks like something out of Diagon Alley; books lining the walls and stacks sprouting from the floor in an old building.

[haligonia]

I don't have any photos, but John W. Doull a the corner of Barrington and Prince is fantastic. Other notable Halifax bookshops are Trident on Hollis and The Last Word on Windsor.

[Andy6]

John Doull is a great store, as was the Borealis shop where 1ajs worked. Possibly the best one in Toronto is D&E Lake on King Street East, which has a lot of books (far more than it looks like if you just walk in off the street - you have to ask!) and also has a huge room full of thousands of antique maps and prints. Anyone in Toronto who likes history, books or maps should pay the store a visit. There are also a lot of new books on subjects like art and architecture. For academic books, the best used bookstore (for selection, not so much price) is Atticus at Spadina and Harbord in Toronto -- I have never seen a store anywhere, inside or outside Canada, with such an impressive stock of high-quality used books on philosophy or other areas of the humanities. Ten Editions, further up Spadina toward Bloor, is also a really nice, and more humble and friendly, store.

[SKYSTHELIMIT]

Aqua Books in Winnipeg is a pretty cool joint with Eat Bistro next door for a quick bite.

[rapid_business]

If you are covering cities in southern Ontario, you should check out Guelph. I swear they have over half a dozen downtown alone.

[MonkeyRonin]

I love this place in my neighbourhood.


(wish I had a better photo but oh well)

Its one of those dusty, smelly, mysterious little places run by a nice old lady, with piles and piles of books packed so tightly that you can barely move.

[haligonia]

Here's a pic of JWD:

[softee]

My hometown of North Bay has 6 good sized bookstores downtown alone (4 mainly used, 2 new), the largest and best being Allison The Bookman, which at one time boasted as being the largest used book store in Canada. It even has its own postcard.

[MolsonExport]

Of the London choices, City Lights and Attic books rule the roost. The others are not bad. There are some used book dealers at Gibraltar Weekend Market.

-used bookstore former addict.


Montreal's McGill Ghetto has a first-rate one, called "The Word"

[vid]

We've got one big used bookstore with two locations, called The Bookshelf. In addition to used books, they have a lot of games, mostly Magic, Pokemon, and Dungeons and Dragons. I guess they cater more to geeks.

http://bookshelf.thunderbay.com/

[AuxTown]

Ottawa has two really good used book stores.

Book Bazaar in Centretown
http://www.bookbazaar.ca/





photo by Concrete06


They specialize in rare books and also have a great collection of sheet music


The Book Market

From Google Streetview


This place has four floors of really great stuff. It looks like a bomb went off inside (what used book sore doesn't?), but it's actually incredibly well-organized. From their website (http://www.bookmarket.ca/downtown.html):

L- The lower floor is filled with magazine back issues which has become a favorite haunt for collectors or just someone who missed one of their favorite titles. Here we also house a large selection of classics, sports, hobbies, crafts, war, diet & health.

1- The 1st floor is the educational floor, handling all the text books and technical subjects as well as a large selection of children's and young adult books for our readers of the future.

2- The 2nd floor devotes all of its space to paperback fiction all arranged for easy access. This includes romances, mysteries, westerns, movies and T.V. tie-ins, and adventure.

3- The 3rd floor is where one would find a large selection of politics and sociology, a great French section as well as great bargains in old hardcover novels.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Andy6

Possibly the best one in Toronto is D&E Lake on King Street East, which has a lot of books (far more than it looks like if you just walk in off the street - you have to ask!) and also has a huge room full of thousands of antique maps and prints. Anyone in Toronto who likes history, books or maps should pay the store a visit.

Thanks for the recommendation, I don't know much about King East at all, so I'll definitely have to check that place out.

Here's a link to blog post on bookshops in Toronto: The Best Used Bookstores in Toronto. I know of several of them. From the post:

Seekers Books (509 Bloor St. W.): Nice orange Penguin collection, though they apparently focus on mysticism and New Age philosophy. Funny, I hadn't noticed when I was in, but in retrospect the name of the place should have been a dead giveaway!

(Photo credit: blogTO)

Eliot's Bookshop (584 Yonge St.): Yonge used to have several charming old shops stuffed to the gills with paperbacks. It's been a while since I went into any of them, so I'm not even sure if they're still there. But Eliot's apparently still is, and I fondly recall scouting out bleak mid-20th-century titles here back in my pseudo-Existentialist days.

(Photo credit: blogTO)

Frantic City (123 Ossington Ave.): I recently wandered into this place in the course of trolling around Ossington, which by all accounts is Toronto's latest "it" street. The shop is of course named after a Teenage Head album, and the reason for the homage was that it was the first album the owner ever bought back in the day. While there the tributes to skunky Ramones-like rock'n'roll are all over the shop, including the vinyl for sale, it's actually a neat and tidy place with a good selection of kewl lit, i.e. the owner knows the difference between Iain Banks and Iain M. Banks.

(Photo credit: blogTO)