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Founded by the Australian Booksellers Association in 2014, Love Your Bookshop Day is an annual day of celebration for, you guessed it, local bookshops, and this year we’re celebrating October 11. This year’s theme is “Discover the Magic. Discover You.”
Love Your Bookshop Day aims to reignite Australians’ love of reading and remind people that no matter one’s life stage, local bookshops are spaces of discovery, inspiration and connection.
Book People
The idea of course, is to pop out to your local bookshop and buy a book. For yourself, or someone special.
Or if they’re having an event, drop by and say hello.
So in honour of Love Your Bookshop Day, here’s the deets on five of my favourite bookstores.
The Paperback Bookstore, 60 Bourke Street Melbourne
I used to work just around the corner, and would often stop by for a browse while I was on a lunch break, though sadly I don’t work near there now.
It had all sorts of interesting books, many not stocked by the major chains, so you could always find something to fit your mood.
Even better, it outlasted three nearby kebab shops so that must be some kind of record.
Photo by Me!
Minotaur, 264 Little Collins Street Melbourne
Once a dingy basement in Elizabeth Street specialising in Science Fiction and Fantasy, now the go-to for all kinds of pop culture merch, manga, and stuff.
Famously visited several times by a certain Discworld novelist and actor (GNU Terry Pratchett).
I haven’t been to this one, though I went to the Elizabeth Street address a few times. It’s now an axe throwing event space.
Photo by Me!
Hill of Content, 32 Bourke Street Melbourne
Hill of Content, Melbourne’s oldest bookshop opened in 1922.
It had lovely dark wood joinery and deep red carpets. I particularly enjoyed walking up the steep three story rickety staircases.
Making way for redevelopment, they recently moved to #32.
Ironically for the kebab shops mentioned above, this building was a burger bar among other uses.
Photo by Me!
Dymocks Lower Ground Floor, 234 Collins Street, Melbourne
Dymocks is the oldest bookshop in Australia, though I don’t know which shop was the start of the franchise empire, and it remains a family owned business.
This particular store is a favourite of mine, in part for its basement location, partly for what was a fantastic range of stationery and gifts. Not to mention it’s huge and has a cafe.
One year, I bought ALL my Christmas gifts at this store and it was not fun taking them home on the train.
Photo by Me!
There’ve been a lot of bookstores that’ve closed down since I arrived in Melbourne, and I just want to mention one I wish was still here.
The Foreign Language Bookshop, 260 Collins Street Melbourne
This used to be the Foreign Language Bookshop, though I can’t remember if that was its name.
It was a tiny little basement store – I don’t recall any natural light.
I originally went there to buy some French language textbooks, which were extoritionate in the way textbooks usually are.
But they also had a small fiction section as well, though I suppose they were for studying too.
But I was surprised it wasn’t just the “big” languages, but smaller and less common language groups represented there as well.
Photo by Me!
Some fun bookshops, but this one with bunting looks like more fun than should be allowed in a bookshop.
