Used bookstoresThe River Trading Company
559 Barton St E, Hamilton, ON L8L 2Z2
A used bookstore in Barton Village, 2.5 km east of downtown, that its owners say opened in Toronto on July 31, 2010 and moved on June 6, 2015 into this Barton Street East building, a former café that had stood empty for eight years. Vintage goods and collectibles share the shelves with the books. The website still shows a curbside-pickup notice from the pandemic beside its noon-start grid, and a Facebook reminder on September 6, 2026 had the shop open from noon to 7pm on Labour Day Monday.
Hours: Sun–Thu noon–7pm, Fri–Sat noon–9pmWebsite Used bookstoresLast Supper Books
148 James St N, Hamilton, ON L8R 2K7
A James Street North room, 700 m northeast of the core, mixing new and used titles in sociology, critical studies, philosophy, religion and culture with modern literature and classic novels; its website also carries a page for Lazarus Video. It takes quality used books, graphic novels, DVDs, 4K discs and Blu-rays for store credit, and sometimes cash. Its Instagram announced Wednesday co-working and Sunday quiet reading sessions from the week of January 6, 2026, and new stacks were still going out on July 31, 2026. Its opening hours are posted in the Instagram bio rather than on the website.
Hours: Tue noon–5pm, Wed–Fri noon–6pm, Sat 11am–5pm, Sun noon–4pmWebsite Used bookstoresThe City & The City Books
181 Ottawa St N, Hamilton, ON L8H 3Z4
An east-end shop on the Ottawa Street North strip, 4.5 km from downtown, selling new and used books side by side, with local and Canadian authors and indie presses pushed forward according to the Spectator's bookshop guide of April 20, 2026. The secondhand shelves lean to literary fiction, history, politics, poetry, graphic novels, science fiction and horror, plus first editions and a classic-paperback section. Leave the box at home, since the shop says it accepts no books from the public for lack of shelf space. It runs The Way Out East reading series at Jordan's Homeside Pub and a book club that meets at The Hearty Hooligan.
Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun 11am–5pmWebsite Used bookstoresJames Street Bookseller
134 James St S, Hamilton, ON L8P 2Z4
A Durand shop on James Street South, beside the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts, carrying mostly used and rare books alongside fountain pens, stationery and a few new titles by local authors. It changed owners in spring 2026: a Facebook farewell on April 3 introduced Josiah Nahwegahbow as the new proprietor, and walk-in browsing resumed on September 2, 2026 under a Tuesday-to-Saturday week. A September 11 post said a set of leather-bound Franklin Library editions was due the following week, and the staff will hold a title if you message or call 905-527-3332.
Hours: Tue–Sat 10am–6pmWebsite Used bookstoresBarely Bent Books
46 King St E, Dundas, ON L9H 1B8
In Dundas, on King Street East some 600 m from The Printed Word, a secondhand shop with hardcovers and paperbacks for adults, teens and children, plenty of series, mysteries and cookbooks, and credit toward later purchases that builds with each book bought, according to the Dundas Valley business directory. An author's Facebook post of May 24, 2025 said the store had just marked its 25th anniversary, and on June 17, 2026 the Dundas Valley Sunrise Rotary thanked it as a Duck Derby sponsor, adding that Chantal from the shop sits on the derby committee. The shop's own page and that directory list the same week, with a short Friday afternoon.
Hours: Tue–Thu 10am–6pm, Fri 2:30pm–6pm, Sat 10am–5pmWebsite Used bookstoresBy The Lake Books
5295 Lakeshore Rd, Burlington, ON L7L 1C7
Out in southeast Burlington at Lakeshore Road and Kenwood, 17 km from downtown Hamilton, a used bookstore that began in 1996 as Lakeview Books, with a military museum in the basement; its About page says the military section remains a strength and that the basement is being turned into a browsable overflow floor. The home page claims 30 years serving Burlington and Oakville, and a Wayback Machine capture of June 12, 2025 already shows that line with the same Tuesday-to-Sunday schedule, unchanged when the page was reread in September 2026. The book credit exchange gives roughly $1 in store credit per book, more for rare titles, valid for a year, and the shop sells Mylar covers for collectible copies.
Hours: Tue–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 11am–3pmWebsite Used bookstoresBooked Experiences Bookstore
575 Plains Rd E, Burlington, ON L7T 2E6
In Burlington's Aldershot neighbourhood, 8 km north-northeast of downtown Hamilton, a shop in the Jug Milk plaza on the north side of Plains Road East whose Facebook 'about' line promises new titles alongside used and out-of-print scholarly books. A Local Journalism Initiative profile by Emily R. Zarevich, published January 31, 2025, says owner Judith Patton has sold books online since 2004, opened this storefront in 2018, sorts it by genre and author, and gives donors store credit worth 10 percent of a book's original price. On Facebook it marked seven years in Aldershot with a buy-two-get-one-free weekend on June 28 and 29, 2025 and hosted a pop-up tarot tent on Sunday, August 9, 2026, but it posts no weekly schedule, and the owner uses that Facebook page for last-minute shutdowns like the January 15, 2026 snow day, so look there before driving over.