A Guide to Montreal's Best Bookshops

Located in Montreal’s Mile-End, Drawn and Quarterly is probably the city’s most well known bookstore. The collection caters to the youth, with large selections of comic books, instructions for graphic design, manga, and many independently published works. Drawn and Quarterly is also Montreal’s premier destination for local author’s holding book launch events. The downside for this location is that if you are seeking a traditional bookshop that smells of old parchment and aging leather you are out of luck. Drawn and Quarterly is quite modern.

Argo picks up what Drawn and Quarterly left out. A classic bookshop that has all the feelings associated with aging archivists, arcane curiosities and all the literary greats. Argo offers a fantastic and sweeping collection of used books. Come here for the tomes of academia or the newest New York Times bestseller. Despite not possessing the modern and trendy feel of Drawn and Quarterly, Argo’s staid atmosphere should satisfy the classic bibliophiles.

Montreal is a French-speaking city in a French-speaking province, and Librarie Gallimard is a French-language bookstore. If you’re a francophile and are looking for something to read in le langue d’amore then come and peruse the selection in Gallimard. The number of titles on display is vast and part of the charm of this independent bookseller is just browsing. If you cannot read French you are out of luck at Gallimard, but if you can, you will be delighted shopping here.

L’Échange is a French-language bookstore in the heart of Montreal and also known for its extensive vinyl, featuring a collection of both French and English music. For the Francophile, the book options range from philosophy to classics to bestsellers to cookbooks to joke books. The options in French are anything but limited.

This place is packed with books and cats. Well, not packed with cats, but there are some permanent feline residents haunting the shop. As far as books are concerned, it is packed with so many they don’t fit on the shelves. T. Westcott is a used bookseller, with books in French and English.