Sigla Books

Such a great addition to Calgary’s bookstores. The depth and variety of fascinating books keeps me coming back.

Wonderful used book store. You're guaranteed to have a great time looking through all the unique books here, or find something you'd never find anywhere else. Highly recommend!

This bookshop is a hidden gem—unassuming but exceptionally well-curated, with lots of hard-to-find books. Each section invites careful attention. (Of particular note: religion, psychology, literary history. And Marshall McLuhan has his own shelf!) While browsing is a delight, chatting with David, the owner, makes it even more so. He is keenly inquisitive about the interests of his customers. If you want a conversation starter, ask him about the old signs of now-defunct Calgary bookshops that are leaning against the wall (deMille, Words Worth). Sigla is very much a shop for book people"—there's even a section for books about books. Time spent here will be rewarded!"

I've stopped by this bookstore on a weekly basis over the past several months—and I never leave empty-handed.The collection of uncommon and rare books makes every visit feel like a treasure hunt. David, the owner, is a great conversationalist and remembers what my reading interests are, and he makes it a point to bring up new arrivals that relate to those interests.A couple of the reviews for this store are rather unfair; go check out the place and see for yourself... especially if you like your reading to include a bit of the obscure (read: non-mainstream, like a first edition copy of Borges in Spanish), this place is worth visiting.

I have never left a review for a business before, but I feel the need to in this situation. I am only giving this store more than one star because I do think it is unique and has the potential to be a great bookstore, as I have purchased a few books here before that I had difficulty finding in regular book stores. However, the owner has been rude to me and my friends on multiple occasions now. Yesterday, my friend and I visited this store as we both have before. We are university students finishing our degrees in the humanities, so we naturally have an interest in a variety of subjects from religious studies to ancient history. We were leisurely going through the store, making sure to look through the books thoroughly to see if we could find anything of interest. At a couple of points we took out our phones to quickly research the authors of some books we were considering, as we wanted to ensure that the books would be fit for our research. At this point, the owner came up to us and instead of politely asking if we needed help finding something, he abrasively asked something along the lines of You do know you're in my bookstore

I ran into this bookstore by chance on my way to another one that happened to be located nearby. When I walked past it I noticed that it was closed but I was able to peep through the window regardless and the titles which I was able to discern peaked my interest. I went back the following day to find the shop open. I immediately suspected I had come across something special upon walking in, and when I saw a Wilhelm Reich volume sitting in the psychology section my suspicions were confirmed. I was able to find two books that I had specifically been looking for (one of which I had been hunting down for months), and dozens of others which I had only ever seen popping up online every now and then but never found in physical form in an actual shop. The owner was extremely knowledgeable and forthcoming, having no issue going through the long list of titles I was seeking and looking for them alongside me. Moreover, he also suggested some (to me) unknown titles that were perfectly aligned with my interests, even putting me on to some of my own compatriots which I had never heard of despite being Italian. I purchased three books in total and went back a couple of days later to get another one. I will undoubtedly be back again. I am no stranger to used bookstores and I think the only comparable experience in terms of sheer amount of rare gems must have been John K. King Books in Detroit, which is however a much larger shop and even somewhat dispersive because of it. In fact, while John K. King requires one to spend several hours browsing through thousands of volumes in search for rare gems, Sigla Books is essentially a carefully curated compendium of rare gems-only, all neatly arranged in plain sight. You can tell that the owner has put together something great here and I cannot speak of it highly enough.

my brain is a flurry of metaphors and explanations and colours as i try to describe my first experience here. stumbled into it because i just love coffee shop/book store combos and my life was changed. i can’t believe this place exists in our universe. i may have spent too much money on books but i am better for it. i am more myself because i was there. david is a stop-you-in-your-tracks sort of person, deeply thoughtful and so gentle and present. he has an encyclopedic knowledge of his books and an inspiring creative intuition. i am alive and delighted.

As travelling rare book collectors, we had a great time in this store last we visited in the summer of 2022. It had an excellent collection of interesting titles. We took our time to look over the stores collection and purchased several rare titles. The proprietor was very keen to discuss books with us and we chatted at length about dozens of authors and titles. The proprietor also permitted us to handle rare books worth thousands which we really appreciated the trust to do so. Ultimately, we will be returning to this store upon our next visit to Calgary.

The owner is clearly super passionate about all of his books, I asked for help finding one and he knew everything about the authors and had other great recommendations based on what I had asked for. He also pulled down antiques from the back and let us take a look. It was super cool and I will definitely be back for more great recommendations!

Real cool coffee bar. The bookstore was a very unpleasant experience, the owner was quite hostile. My friend and I went there to browse and took our time, we could not have been more than 20 minutes. The owner got upset and let us know that he was the owner with no other context. Then when we were leaving he told us it wasn't kosher" to browse and use our phones (I was googling the authors I did not know) and not buy anything. I did change my mind a couple of times and put the books back to the best of my ability. I would understand if it was an hour and a half and all I was doing was sitting in a chair reading an entire book but I wasn't doing that and was earnestly just looking because they have a cool book selection. I thought maybe it was just a one time situation but my friend said that she was also given a hostile response for taking her time in the classics section. If you are a reader and like to take your time browsing I do not recommend this bookstore. I have a feeling it may have been because of our young age and the fact that we used our phones."