A Guide to the Bookstores of Toronto

Trevor S. Raymond is a teacher and librarian with the Peel Board of Education and editor of Canadian Holmes.

York University librarian and bibliographer Peggy Warren-Wenk and St.
Andrew’s College musicologist and bibliographer Arthur Wenk have
produced a super guide for southern Ontario bibliophiles. It provides
descriptive material on some 250 bookstores in Toronto and as far away
as Fort Erie. Each store’s specialty, size, special services, and
special events are included, along with a paragraph or two of
description and occasional personal comments. Also included are store
addresses (with specific directions on how to reach each shop by public
transit, and even parking advice), telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail
addresses. Although we are advised in one instance of a store’s
unusual hours of operation, such information as well as the inclusion of
a store’s days open would have been useful.

The authors include a list of Canadian book trade periodicals, local
book festivals and sales, and the names of personal favorite bookshops.
Stores specializing in mail orders and out-of-print books get their own
section, and there is a geographical index (Toronto is divided into
regions). A subject guide directs a user to specific interests, be they
bridge, ceramics, Hungarian, or any one of six dozen others.
Unfortunately, the size of the book (8" x 10"), despite its attractive
pages, makes it awkward to carry on a walking tour of a bookshop
neighborhood.