LitMinds Blog and Interviews

Over Easter weekend I flew up to French-Canadian city of Montreal to visit. There we had a chance to take a quick tour through ‘Vieux-Montreal’ a.k.a. the historic quarter and its pleasant art galleries, boutiques and independent bookstores.  It wasn’t an exhaustive tour of what the city has to offer but in a few short days we happened upon a few gems worth sharing with you. 

The most unusual and delightful find on our tour was Librissime, an art book store, that specializes in pubs that can be considered ‘objects d’art’ in their own right.  As they advertise you can buy books here for $9 up to $99,999. The owner was keen to point out to us the calf-skin-bound Italian imports, which re-print Dante’s The Divine Comedy in its three installments (I was afraid to ask the price tag the limited editions looked too expensive to touch… I feared I would crack the spine of the oversized tomes!). 

But the store’s an adventure in and of itself.  The family team (Papa bear Gilles, Mama bear Judith, and two baby bears: Noémie and Étienne) that opened their store just last year has a graphic-design aesthetic that makes the store welcoming and luxurious at the same time.  The first thing you see when you walk in off the cobble-stoned street is a ‘blackboard wall’ with a chalk-scrawled welcome message announcing the arrival of the latest assortment of art books. And, the store also offers a unique service: they’ll custom-design your home library!  Let your imagination run the gambit from post-modern to renaissance influences… they’ll select the books, place them on display and even decorate the shelves themselves with any theme you dream up.  Check out their detailed website for more photos of their colorful books and creative displays.

The second bookstore we hit in the old city is Librairie Raffin.  It’s actually a mini-chain of French-language bookstores in the Montreal metro area with a relatively modest selection.  But, the old historic building of their Vieux-Montreal location is inviting and conveniently located across from the science & technology museum.  It carries a decent selection of the latest Canadian titles in French and English. 

We skipped the larger bookstores: Chapters / Indigo are the Canadian box-store chains situated in the main shopping district in downtown Montreal.  We had visited them previously and didn't think they were worth the trip this time.  If you happen in one of these stores you can expect they’ll carry more Canadian & European titles than their US chain counterparts but they still lack the individual personalities that the independent stores exude.

Finally, we had a last stop at a tasty bookstore across from the supermarche’ in the district of Westmount.  Bon Appetit Cookbooks is run by Jonathan and Michelle, a husband-wife team.  He’s the chef and she’s the business brain.  The couple has a terrific specialty bookstore that hosts regularly visiting celebrity chefs.  The store is equipped with a full kitchen and offers near daily cooking demonstrations by Chef Jonathan himself.  From recipes for delectable ‘amuse bouches’ and my favorite sinful chocolate desserts, the cuisines you can sample here range across the continents including the latest fusion cookbooks that any urban chef should desire.  Check out their titles and event schedule on the store’s website at: http://www.bonappetitcookbooks.com/

We only had three days so this was certainly not an exhaustive search of the city's independent bookstore treasures.  If you have any recommendations for additional stops we should make next time we're in Montreal, please let us know.  Bonne chance and happy reading!