For years I’d been searching for a copy of Janusz Glowacki’s Antigone in New York, a play I performed back in Mexico. I couldn’t find it anywhere: big bookstores, small bookstores, online, in Canada, in the United States –nowhere. Until a friend of mine told me about Theatre Books, a little store specializing in screenplays and scripts that happens to be two blocks away from my apartment. It was right there under my nose, but I didn’t even know it existed. They had the book in stock.
More recently I’ve been hunting for books by Roberto Bolaño, in their original Spanish. Again, I couldn’t find them anywhere. Online, I learned about a Spanish bookstore in New York, but it had closed before I could visit it. So when my sister, who is visiting from Mexico, asked me if she could bring anything for me, I requested as many books by Bolaño as she could find in our hometown of León. She brought several and made me happy.
Today I was showing her around town. We went to the Annex and I thought of walking further west into Koreatown, an area I don’t frequent much. That’s where we found it: Spanish Books, a nice little bookstore specializing (you guessed it) on books in Spanish. Just a couple of blocks after Honest Ed’s. I couldn’t believe it. I asked the seller when had they opened; he told me the store had been around for 12 years. Twelve years, again right under my nose, and I’d never seen it or heard about it. And if I hand’t been showing my sister around I would still not know about it.
They had a bunch of Bolaño books too (fortunately none but one of those that my sister brought with her) and I walked out with all of them.
Now I’m just wondering about other fabulous bookstores within walking distance of my apartment that I simply haven’t discovered yet.
(The store is moving, by the way. In a couple of weeks you’ll find them on Bathurst, a block and a half north of Bloor. It’s a bit expensive but it’s worth it. They also do requests.)
Catenary 
So you have visitors! good. That is why you need a bike, so you can discover the city. There is a book called “Unknown Toronto”, NOT a tourist guide, a guide for residents (the places under your nose that you never see, like the little cementery I showed you). a city is your home as much as you know it!
Ah! Just to make you feel worse, this is like 2 blocks from your home, it is a school but I got several Poniatowska books there:
http://www.spanishcentre.com/dispatcher.asp?page=3
I think it moved since they may be affected by the demolition, but it was there for at least 7 years…
*sigh*
6 driving hours from your place you can also find another decent Spanish bookstore here in Montreal: http://www.lasamericas.ca or buy online and use their shipping service. I used to buy from there until I realized that a lot of public Montreal libraries have lots of Spanish books and I could just borrow them for free…sort of.. (considering that taxes are pretty hefty in this country).
Also if you are in town, you can try out a meeting at our Spanish book club and chat to us about your Roberto Bolaño interests. We are a group of readers, not writers, nor professional book reviewers, we just try to keep Spanish alive ‘n kicking by sharing our reading experiences. http://espiralesdelectura.wordpress.com/
Espirales sounds like a great book club, Hector, thanks for the tip! But unfortunately now Montreal is a far greater distance from my home—we just moved to the West Coast.
занимательно послушать личностей, каковые сейчас ведают, чем мочь шокировать транссексуалы Москвы. Я по личной личности исследователь. еще соскакивал с парашютом, с моста на резинке, плавал на гондоле по горным рекам. И не вдаваясь в подробности индивидуалки Москвы все хочется перепробовать в бытии. смотри и посетила ко мне намерение узнать на своем опыте таковой тип интим услуги. К чему если разобраться надобно оказаться снаряженным? каким образом себя корчить с ними? Проститутки Москвы, с коими мне случалось контактировать, ничего о трансах существенного поведать не могут. может быть у них какое-нибудь свое общество, секретное от чужих глаз. Я просто не знаю где их возможно встретить, кроме как не в инете.