Bookstores in Winnipeg
If you judge a town by its bookshops, Winnipeg, MB gives you 17 to judge by. That's 17 bookshops mapped around Winnipeg, 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 Winnipeg (within about 40 km), built from OpenStreetMap's community-maintained data. Names you'll run into include McNally Robinson and Chapters, plus Indigo. If a bookshop's missing from Winnipeg's list, it probably just hasn't been mapped yet.
The Winnipeg bookstore lineup
17 mapped within about 40 km:
McNally Robinson
Bookstore
McNally Robinson — Bookstore. Also worth knowing about McNally Robinson: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 10:00-21:00; Su 10:00-18:00.
Hours: Mo-Sa 10:00-21:00; Su 10:00-18:00
Chapters
Bookstore
Chapters — Bookstore. Also worth knowing about Chapters: the map lists its hours as Mo-Fr 10:00-21:00; Sa 10:00-18:00; Su 11:00-18:00.
Hours: Mo-Fr 10:00-21:00; Sa 10:00-18:00; Su 11:00-18:00
Indigo
Bookstore
Indigo — Bookstore on 1590 Kenaston Boulevard. Also worth knowing about Indigo: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 10:00-21:30; Su 12:00-18:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
1590 Kenaston Boulevard, R3P 0Y4
Hours: Mo-Sa 10:00-21:30; Su 12:00-18:00
Phone: +1 204-488-6621
Prairie Sky
Bookstore
Prairie Sky — Bookstore on 871 Westminster Avenue. Also worth knowing about Prairie Sky: the map lists its hours as Mo-Th 11:00-18:00; Fr 11:00-19:00; Sa 11:00-18:00; Su 12:00-16:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
871 Westminster Avenue
Hours: Mo-Th 11:00-18:00; Fr 11:00-19:00; Sa 11:00-18:00; Su 12:00-16:00
Phone: +1-204-774-6152
University of Winnipeg Bookstore
Bookstore
University of Winnipeg Bookstore is Bookstore.
Burton Lysecki Books
Bookstore
Burton Lysecki Books is Bookstore on 527 Osborne Street. Burton Lysecki Books also notes on the map: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
527 Osborne Street, R3L 2B2
Phone: +1 204-284-4546
CommonWord
Bookstore
CommonWord is Bookstore.
Whodunit Mystery Bookstore
Bookstore
Whodunit Mystery Bookstore — Bookstore on 163 Lilac Street. Also worth knowing about Whodunit Mystery Bookstore: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 10:00-17:00; Su 12:00-17:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
163 Lilac Street, R3M 2S1
Hours: Mo-Sa 10:00-17:00; Su 12:00-17:00
Phone: +1 204-284-9100
Zed Book
Bookstore
Zed Book is Bookstore on 213 Hespeler Avenue.
213 Hespeler Avenue
Book Ends
Bookstore
Book Ends — Bookstore.
Bison Books
Used bookstore
Bison Books is Used bookstore on 424 Graham Avenue. Bison Books also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 10:00-16:30; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
424 Graham Avenue, R3C 0L8
Hours: Mo-Sa 10:00-16:30
Phone: +1 204-947-5931;+1 866-772-6657
Red River Books
Bookstore
Red River Books — Bookstore, found on 92 Arthur Street in Winnipeg. Also worth knowing about Red River Books: the map lists its hours as Fr-We 11:00-15:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
92 Arthur Street, Winnipeg, R3B 1H3
Hours: Fr-We 11:00-15:00
Phone: +1 204-943-9788
Coles
Bookstore
Coles is Bookstore.
McNally Robinson
Bookstore
McNally Robinson — Bookstore.
Chapters
Bookstore
Chapters — Bookstore on 695 Empress Street. Also worth knowing about Chapters: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 10:00-19:00; Su 11:00-18:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
695 Empress Street
Hours: Mo-Sa 10:00-19:00; Su 11:00-18:00
Phone: +1 204-775-5999
Willow
Bookstore
Willow is Bookstore on 214 Osborne Street.
214 Osborne Street
Book Fair
Bookstore
Book Fair — Bookstore on 340 Portage Avenue.
340 Portage Avenue
What the map tells us about bookstores in Winnipeg
8 of the 17 list their opening hours on the map, which is genuinely useful — bookshops keep civilised hours, so the listed ones are usually reliable.
5 have websites listed. Worth a look for events — readings and signings get announced there first.
The Winnipeg bookstore crawl
Making a day of it in Winnipeg? Work this order: McNally Robinson, Chapters, Indigo on 1590 Kenaston Boulevard, Prairie Sky on 871 Westminster Avenue, University of Winnipeg Bookstore, Burton Lysecki Books on 527 Osborne Street, CommonWord, and Whodunit Mystery Bookstore on 163 Lilac Street. That's the bookstore crawl in one sensible loop, no backtracking. 9 more are listed below.
Bookstore tips for Winnipeg
Browsing in Winnipeg? A little strategy helps:
- Ask for the out-of-print hunters at McNally Robinson. Some used shops will hunt down out-of-print titles for you. It takes patience, but the find is worth it.
- Note the shop's specialties at Chapters. Sci-fi, travel, art books, philosophy — every good shop leans somewhere. Find the lean that matches yours.
- Gift buying? Ask for wrapping. Many independents wrap beautifully and free. It beats a gift bag every time.
- Check the cookbook section. Cookbooks are the most browsed and least bought section, which means the used shelf is full of barely-touched gems.
Good to know
We searched about 40 km around Winnipeg — 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 Winnipeg can take a while to appear. The 17 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 17 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 Winnipeg: 17 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.