About
The City & The City Books is an independent bookstore located at 181 Ottawa St. N in the east end of Hamilton. We sell new and used books, magazines, and gift items. We host a monthly reading series called The Way Out East Book Series at Jordan’s Homeside Pub plus various launches and reading at the store. We also run a book club that meets every other month at The Hearty Hooligan, and produce a podcast called New & Used: Book Talk.
New
The City & The City Books is a small store, so the new section has adult and kids books and is highly curated. Here you can find brand new releases along with the weird, the fun, the informational, the book you thought you would never find, or the book you never knew you wanted until you saw it. We promote indie presses along with the bigger presses.
Used
Our used is a mix of literary fiction, history, politics, poetry, graphic novels, sci-fi, horror. We also have some nice first editions and a cool classic paperback section.
We do not accept books from the public due to limited shelf space.
Janet & Tim
Store owners Tim and Janet really, really, really like to read, and then ramble on about what they have read. So in 2019 they opened a bookstore. They also really like China Miéville’s brain, so they named their store after one his of books.
Janet is a graduate of Toronto University’s Publishing Program and previously worked in social services with agencies addressing mental health, addiction, and homelessness. After working with Exile Press, Tim opened Frantic City, a used book and record store on Ossington Ave. in Toronto that he operated for eight years.
Since moving to Hamilton, Janet and Tim have connected with authors and readers and are committed to help build a lively and diverse literary scene in the city.
