The Modernist Society is a creative project dedicated to celebrating and engaging with 20th-century architecture and design, through publishing, events, exhibitions and creative collaborations. Their bricks and mortar shop opened in May 2019 in the Northern Quarter and is the only bookshop in Manchester specialising in architecture and design.

“A bookshop with purpose” and playing a powerful role in the community, House of Books & Friends is also a café and a place to meet and chat with likeminded individuals. There’s an atmospheric wood-panelled events space at the back, where regular readings and creative activities take place.

Manchester’s award-winning independent gay bookshop has an extensive range of over 2,000 LGBTQIA+ titles to immerse yourself in – and if they don’t have what you’re looking for, just ask and they’ll pop it on their order list for you. The new Great Ancoats Street premises also does snacks and a sitdown bit, and regular events are now a thing too.

Loitering on a corner of Oldham Road at the edge of Ancoats is Peste, where church kneelers are provided from which you may worship the carefully curated bookshelves. Feminist classics by Simone de Beauvoir jostle for attention with Lighthouse editions of Frank O’Hara poems; coffee table art books peacock alongside up-to-the-minute auto fiction. Readings are also becoming de rigueur, so definitely watch this space.

Blackwell’s shiny shop is cavernous and comes complete with a cafe. The exclusive bookseller at University Green, the specialists in specialist and academic reading’s flagship store in the North West also stocks plenty of fiction, and has a jam-packed programme of author events – keep an eye on our Literature Guide for details.

If you have ever dreamed of owning a bookshop, it probably looked like this one. Pleasingly petite, lovely old tiled stove, family-owned with a good selection of books, it’s even pet-friendly. Perfect. And forget Amazon – Chorlton Bookshop will happily order in anything not on the shelves, and there’s a great selection of greetings cards and gifty bits and bobs to boot.

UNITOM stepped into a Magma-shaped gap when it opened in the NQ and is home to a wide array of publications on contemporary art, design, fashion, photography and counterculture, alongside a vast range of independent magazines and small press titles, including local publishers like Confingo.

Originally set up in Cheadle Village, with a sideline in damn fine coffee and homemade vegan cakes, Greenhouse Books moved in the back end of 2023 and can now be found in trendy Stockport Underbanks. The larger premises allow for author readings and artist talks. Oh, and there’s books! With both pre-loved product and hot-off-the-press titles, Jonny and the team curate some great “local” displays, and graphic novels and comics also line the creaking shelves.

All the best alternative books and independent magazines you could wish to find on the back of a bike – and just a bunnyhop, skip and a jump from Manchester Poetry Library too. Watch this space for a new less moveable bookstore feast in the shape of a Catalog container.

Waterstones are the reigning champions of high street bookshops, but don’t let that put you off. Filled to the brim with all the titles you would expect, you might spot the Deansgate branch of Waterstones appearing in our Literature Guide for hosting regular book launches and signings with authors and other in-store events.

This hidden gem of a bookshop in the Northern Quarter stocks shelves upon shelves of secondhand tomes. Seek out the staircase next to Beermoth beershop – it’s a bit like a real-life version of Mr Smith’s Dream at the nearby Manchester Craft Centre.

Yes, we know The Art Of Tea is a go-to for brunch classics and, er, tea, but snuggled away at the back is the Didsbury Village Bookshop (not to be confused with the Didsbury bookshop Mortens, on quaint old cobbledy Warburton Street, but why not visit both?). This secondhand treasure trove has tons of reference books, a whole lot of poetry and more Penguin Classics than you could shake a penguin-keeper’s stick at.

As well as holding the archive of one of Manchester’s most famous writers (and, according to the centre’s director, one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions), the IABF has a well-stocked bookstore for Burgess fans, lining the wall’s of the rather pleasant cafe. What’s more, live literature events, bookclubs, poetry readings and spoken-word nights are regular features.

This newly expanded indie bookseller is run by husband-and-wife team Ian and Suzy out of the Old Police Station in Levenshulme, just next door to the Old Town Hall’s Antiques Village, complete with a vinyl soundtrack and offering a carefully curated collection of previously owned books and ephemera.

As well as the most unrivalled cinema screens in Manchester, some of the city’s best theatre, exhibition spaces, and bar and restaurant, HOME has a bookshop. It stocks books and magazines which complement HOME’s artistic programme as well as local independently produced publications and journals alongside a cracking choice of geetings cards.

If you like your comic books with some role-playing games on the side, look no further than Travelling Man. The choice of books, comics and graphic novels is arguably the best in Manchester. Plus the staff are friendly and knowledgeable.

If you’re still wondering how C3PO got that red arm (and who isn’t?), then you’ll probably want to start your shopping here. The Waterstones of the geek world, Forbidden Planet has books, comics and some undeniably cool pop culture merch to boot. Hulk Hands, anyone?

The award for the bookshop with the most personality goes to… Paramount books. A paradise for those looking for something a little unusual, there’s also the opportunity to sell books and comics as well as buy.

Chapter 1 Books is an independent bookshop and coffee shop on Lever Street, although these days it’s more coffee shop than bookshop. But if you like coffee and cake, libraries and vintage typewriters, then this is the place for you. They also have a fountain, naturally, as well as readings, performances and other arty goings-on.