Local Lit Havens
Independent Bookstores You Won’t Want to Miss
October 15 was Independents’ Day! If you’re reading this in the Starbucks in Chapters — leave! Support the local guys. Why? They’ll buy your zine on consignment. They’ll let you read to your friends at their store. They serve you tea. They let you touch their cats. They let you touch their books. They buy your textbooks from you. They suggest books to you. They talk to you. They don’t talk to you.
Here’s a list of some of the many bookstores in Montreal. If ever you need a break from fake coffee and constant announcements over the intercom, these should help.
Some of the bookstores in Montreal do have students in mind: whether new or used, they’ll put aside books that students from McGill or Concordia will need. Paragraphe (2220 McGill College Ave.) is one of them. It is also host to many readings from David Sedaris or Adam Gopnik. The staff is always helpful. In fact, one of the girls who works there is a poet studying Medical Anthropology.
The Word (469 Milton Rd.) is a secondhand bookstore that also carries Norton Anthologies (brand new and just as heavy). The window is always themed and the last one was “drawing.”
Odyssey Bookstore (1439 Stanley St.) has a great selection of used books on film studies, theatre, jazz and sheet music. If you can’t find your book, the owners will hand you a bookmark with a website on it; the Used Book Circle is an online database where you can request a book from other book dealers in the Montreal area (and outside of it). The instructions are all outlined on the site, and 48 hours later, you should get an answer.
Cheap Thrills ) (2044 Metcalfe Rd.) is better known for selling vinyl, CDs and tickets to shows, but did you know that it also has a great selection of used books? Sure, you’ll get a couple of stares as you push your way through music aficionados, but you can find Marshal McLuhan’s Understanding Media – with the Rudolph de Harak cover. You can also pick up Woody Allen’s Without Feathers. They also carry every Vonnegut known to print.
While you’re in the area, you should stop by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (1920 Baile Rd.) for your architecture lit fix and great imported magazines. They just received David Maisel’s collection of x-rayed museum artifacts (History’s Shadow).
Argo Bookshop (1915 Ste Catherine W.) may be tiny, but it packs a punch; it carries over 6, 000 titles. The owner is always drinking tea. The walls are lined with literature, literary theory and criticism, philosophy and much more. If you’re an author, they do take books on consignment. They also host “Authors at Argo,” where twice a month, they ask a writer to bring a few copies of their work to sign.
Astro Books (1844 Ste. Catherine St. W.) is a used bookstore that will also keep an eye out for books you really really want. You can even find comic books and action figures. The owners and employees also take to their website to sound off on current issues in publishing such as Barnes and Nobles vs. DC Comics. (See the “Motormouth” section of their website).
Westcott Books (2065 Ste. Catherine St. W.) is that place you walk by a thousand times until one day, you decide to walk in. The two cats are welcoming and will sometimes walk with you across different genres. They’ll watch you, too. Or they’ll fall asleep on a pile of books you don’t really need to look through anyways.
Encore Books (5670 Sherbrooke St. W.) is a little out of the way, but has a cozy couch and a great selection of records too. You can also browse their inventory online. It’s also blue. It’s across the street from great coffee shops and restaurants. I realize it’s not the Plateau, but try it some time?
Speaking of which, yes, there are a lot of bookstores in the Plateau / Mile End area. I’ve told you now, so you’ll probably never go to NDG. Alright. For French books (and sometimes, English), used and new, there is Port de tête (262 Mont-Royal Ave. E.). It just expanded into what used to be OldgOld boutique. It carries French graphic novels, plenty of books on philosophy, cognitive science, syntax, and yes, literature. And Tin Tin, too.
S. W. Welch (225 St-Viateur) stocks everything from poetry to Science Fiction to Sexuality. You can even find abandoned cultural studies books on lawns – no notes scribbled in the margins, just the odd word underlined.
Practically parallel to Welch’s is Drawn and Quarterly (211 Bernard W.). Tons of graphic novels, n+1 Symposiums and they carry Apartamento magazine. Drawn and Quarterly also hosts literary events and it should be noted that Miranda July is coming Nov. 14! See store for details. Or consult their blog for more details.
If you ever wanted to debate whether books could just be objects, don’t argue against it in Librissime (62 St-Paul Rd. W.). The books sold here are mostly for people who never read them, but will pretend they do? Stock includes large, decorative coffee table books (usually Taschen) that are larger and cost more than your coffee table…and your rent. The owners also specialize in “designing and building custom libraries.” And well, you can’t fault them: Gatsby’s “bricks” were uncut and never read, right? If you’re so inclined, you can find “hyperstylish books and objects! From $9 to $99 999.”
Carlselys Comics (1117 Ste. Catherine St. W., 9th floor) sells comics in mint condition. If you’re lucky and looking, you can find The Walking Dead series for cheap-er than Chapters, etc. It’s mostly charming because it’s located in downtown Montreal and yet it feels so out-of-place perfect.
And to end, Nicholas Hoare (1366 Greene Ave.) is a gem only Adam Gopnik could have recommended. There are three floors – including the CD department. You feel like Kevin McCallister as he walks into Duncan’s Toy Store. Everybody is nice. People talk to you. They go upstairs if your book isn’t downstairs. They can order books from England for you. You keep pinching yourself, because this doesn’t feel like Westmount anymore. They have cards with New Yorker covers. Someone bakes dog biscuits, which they will give to your dog. One of the staffers will walk up to you, look down at the card you selected — Adrian Tomine’s illustration for the New Yorker) — and she’ll say “Oh that’s so you!”
She doesn’t even know you, but she means it. She really does. And then the cat will walk over to the storefront window and the woman will tell you “Oh that’s Oscar. Down here, he’s Oscar Wilde. Up there [pointing to the CD Department], he’s Oscar Peterson.” The closest you’ll get to this in Chapters is a coupon when they can’t find your book. Maybe a free coffee.
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