The Monkey's Paw

The Monkey's Paw is still the Bloordale antiquarian oddity: 1067 Bloor Street West, just east of the Gladstone Library, specializing in uncommon 20th-century printed matter, visual culture, and obsolete technologies. Official monkeyspaw.com posts Tuesday–Saturday 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Sunday noon–5 p.m., closed Monday, phone (416) 531-2123, paw@monkeyspaw.com. The Biblio-Mat — the world's first randomizing vending machine for old books — is still the stunt, and still worth the trip if you have a five-dollar bill and a sense of humour. The rest of the shop is the real collection: taxidermy manuals next to Soviet graphics next to dead-tech handbooks. First-timers: this is not a used-fiction browse like BMV. Come for the weird paper, spin the Biblio-Mat once, and do not expect Sunday-morning hours or a Monday rescue. Closed Monday is firm.