Bookstores in Whitby
If you judge a town by its bookshops, Whitby, ON gives you 29 to judge by. That's 29 bookshops mapped around Whitby, each with its own shelves and specialties. The used sections are where the real bargains hide. Staff picks shelves are the fastest way to read a shop's personality.
This guide covers every bookstore we could verify in and around Whitby (within about 40 km), built from OpenStreetMap's community-maintained data. Names you'll run into include Coles and Bookstore, plus University of Toronto Bookstore. If a bookshop's missing from Whitby's list, it probably just hasn't been mapped yet.
The Whitby bookstore lineup
29 mapped within about 40 km:
Coles
BookstoreRun by Indigo
Coles is Bookstore run by Indigo on 1800 Sheppard Avenue East. Coles also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 09:30-21:30; Su 10:00-20:00; it has a website with more detail.
1800 Sheppard Avenue East
Hours: Mo-Sa 09:30-21:30; Su 10:00-20:00
Bookstore
Bookstore
Bookstore is Bookstore.
University of Toronto Bookstore
Bookstore
University of Toronto Bookstore — Bookstore. Also worth knowing about University of Toronto Bookstore: the map lists its hours as Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00; it has a website with more detail.
Hours: Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00
Durham College Bookstore
Bookstore
Durham College Bookstore is Bookstore.
Chapters
BookstoreRun by Indigo
Run by Indigo, Chapters is Bookstore.
Cole's
Bookstore
Cole's is Bookstore.
Blue Heron Books
Bookstore
Blue Heron Books — Bookstore.
GNU Books
Bookstore
GNU Books is Bookstore.
Centennial College Book Store
Bookstore
Centennial College Book Store — Bookstore.
Christian Science Reading Room
Bookstore
Christian Science Reading Room is Bookstore.
Coles
BookstoreRun by Chapters Indigo Coles
Coles is Bookstore run by Chapters Indigo Coles on 2169 Queen Street East, Toronto. Coles also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as 10:00-18:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
2169 Queen Street East, Toronto, M4L 1J1
Hours: 10:00-18:00
Phone: +1-416-686-7316
SUP Book Store
Bookstore
SUP Book Store — Bookstore, found on 633 Silver Star Boulevard in Toronto. Also worth knowing about SUP Book Store: the map lists its hours as Tu-Su 12:00-19:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
633 Silver Star Boulevard, Toronto, M1V 5N1
Hours: Tu-Su 12:00-19:00
Phone: +1 416-293-2696
The Great Escape Bookstore
Bookstore
The Great Escape Bookstore — Bookstore, found on 957 Kingston Road in Toronto. Also worth knowing about The Great Escape Bookstore: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
957 Kingston Road, Toronto
Phone: +1-416-691-7150
Indigo Spirit
Bookstore
Indigo Spirit — Bookstore.
Indigo
Bookstore
Indigo — Bookstore, found on 1800 Sheppard Avenue East in North York.
1800 Sheppard Avenue East, North York
Coles
Bookstore
Coles is Bookstore.
A.K. Comics & Cards
Bookstore
A.K. Comics & Cards — Bookstore.
Indigo
Bookstore
Indigo — Bookstore.
Indigo Spirit
Bookstore
Indigo Spirit — Bookstore.
Calendar Club
Bookstore
Calendar Club — Bookstore.
Coles
Bookstore
Coles is Bookstore.
Comic Book Addiction
Bookstore
Comic Book Addiction — Bookstore.
Emerald Comics & Sportscards
Bookstore
Emerald Comics & Sportscards is Bookstore.
Book City
Bookstore
Book City is Bookstore on 1950 Queen Street East, Toronto. Book City also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 10:00-18:00; Su 11:00-17:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
1950 Queen Street East, Toronto, M4L 1H6
Hours: Mo-Sa 10:00-18:00; Su 11:00-17:00
Phone: +1 416-698-1444
Hollywood Canteen Cinema Shop
Bookstore
Hollywood Canteen Cinema Shop — Bookstore, found on Danforth Avenue in Toronto. Also worth knowing about Hollywood Canteen Cinema Shop: it has a website with more detail.
Danforth Avenue, Toronto
York University Markham Campus Bookstore
Bookstore
York University Markham Campus Bookstore is Bookstore. York University Markham Campus Bookstore also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00.
Hours: Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00
Book Dragons Den
Bookstore
Book Dragons Den is Bookstore on 74 Simcoe Street South. Book Dragons Den also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Tu-Sa 10:00-18:00; Su 11:00-16:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
74 Simcoe Street South
Hours: Tu-Sa 10:00-18:00; Su 11:00-16:00
Phone: +1-905-576-2666
Indigo
Bookstore
Indigo — Bookstore.
Coles
Bookstore
Coles is Bookstore on 1800 Sheppard Avenue East, North York. Coles also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 09:30-21:30; Su 10:00-20:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
1800 Sheppard Avenue East, North York, M2J 5A7
Hours: Mo-Sa 09:30-21:30; Su 10:00-20:00
Phone: +1 416-499-0581
What the map tells us about bookstores in Whitby
8 of the 29 list their opening hours on the map, which is genuinely useful — bookshops keep civilised hours, so the listed ones are usually reliable.
7 have websites listed. Worth a look for events — readings and signings get announced there first.
There's a cluster: 3 of them sit on 1800 Sheppard Avenue East, so you can string those into one walk and drive between the rest.
The Whitby bookstore crawl
The efficient Whitby bookstore crawl strings these together: Coles on 1800 Sheppard Avenue East, Bookstore, University of Toronto Bookstore, Durham College Bookstore, Chapters, Cole's, Blue Heron Books, and GNU Books — 29 stops, one logical order. 21 more are listed below.
Bookstore tips for Whitby
The regulars' playbook for Whitby's bookshops:
- Check the bargain carts outside at Coles. Sidewalk carts are the shop's clearance rack. A dollar a book, and the turnover is fast.
- Note the shop's specialties at Bookstore. Sci-fi, travel, art books, philosophy — every good shop leans somewhere. Find the lean that matches yours.
- Buy the signed copy. Signed stock costs the same as unsigned and only goes up in charm. Ask at the till; shops often have signed copies behind the counter.
- Don't judge by the window display. The front table is marketing. The back shelves are the shop's real taste. Walk the whole floor.
Good to know
We searched about 40 km around Whitby — that covers the town itself plus the surrounding communities you'd reasonably drive to. Listings come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by local volunteers, so a brand-new bookstore in Whitby can take a while to appear. The 29 above are only as current as the community map. A bookstore that's shut, or a new one nobody's added yet, gets fixed with a single OpenStreetMap edit.
We don't list prices — they change constantly and vary by edition. What we list is the where: real shops, verified by real mappers, in alphabetical order with no favourites.
If you run one of the 29 listed here and something's wrong — a closure, a move, new hours — the fix is the same: update the shop on OpenStreetMap and the correction flows through to this page on the next daily refresh.
Bookstore listings for Whitby: 29 mapped from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Photos from Wikimedia Commons contributors; individual photo credits appear in captions. Listing data was last refreshed automatically — verify hours before visiting.