Encore Books & Records: Getting Lost in the Stacks with Owner Sean Madden

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes a bookstore is just a bookstore. That’s not the case with Encore Books & Records. The NDG establishment, its brick-and-mortar façade perched proudly on Sherbrooke Street, offers up a feeling of community and connection as a neighbourhood staple for more than two decades.

“But it started well before that,” owner Sean Madden explains.

“My mother was a filmmaker; my father was a playwright and a poet. My parents were very involved in the local arts scene. They hosted a lot of parties. So that was my entire world growing up.”

Rising Action

While passionate about licks and metaphors, Sean’s involvement in the bookselling trade came about during university.