Book shopping in Australia
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A
Metropolis
Lovely bookish eyrie with a particular focus on art, architecture, fashion and film. It also has some very special kids books and a desert-island discs selection.
reviewed
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Brunswick St Bookstore
A Fitzroy fixture with contemporary titles, art, literature and design tomes, plus cosy seating.
reviewed
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C
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D
Chronicles Bookshop
It's elbows in and neck out while looking for books among Chronicles' walls of tightly crammed titles. Contemporary fiction is the thing here, particularly Australian literature and crime fiction. Nonfiction specialities include travel and cooking. Savvy staff at this compact store can help find your perfect read. Or grab a card and pen and scrawl a greeting home from the recessed courtyard café next door.
reviewed
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E
Gould’s Book Arcade
Possibly the world’s scariest secondhand bookstore, the floor-to-ceiling racks and stacks seem in perpetual danger of burying you under a tonne of Stalinist analysis. All manner of musty out-of-print books are stocked, with owner Bob’s leftie leanings displayed along one very large wall. Cassettes, 40,000 records and old video tapes, too (VHS and Beta!).
reviewed
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F
Gleebooks
Gleebooks is generally regarded as Sydney’s best bookshop. The aisles are packed with politics, arts and general fiction, and staff really know their stuff. Its annual literary program attracts big-name locals (such as Tim Winton and Michael Leunig) and international writers. Children’s and secondhand books are at their other store.
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G
Architext
Architext’s stock covers the gamut of design and architecture-related titles, including environmental architecture, urban design, photography, theory, journals and magazines. It also stocks the best range of Melbourne-specific books: look for titles by author Philip Goad or the work of local photographer John Gollings.
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H
The Bookshop Darlinghurst
This outstanding bookshop specialises in gay and lesbian literature, with everything from queer crime and lesbian fiction to glossy pictorials and porn. A diverting browse, to say the least (hmm…which would look better on my coffee table: the Big Book of Breasts or the Big Penis Book ?).
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I
Better Read Than Dead
This just might be our favourite Sydney bookshop, and not just because of the pithy name and the great selection of Lonely Planet titles. Nobody seems to mind if you waste hours perusing the beautifully presented aisles, stacked with high-, medium- and deliciously low-brow reading materials.
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J
Berkelouw Books
Six generations of Berkelouws have specialised in secondhand books and printed rarities since setting up shop in Holland in 1812, but its contemporary stores are just as good for new releases and coffee sipping. There are also branches in Paddington and Newtown.
reviewed
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K
Collected Works Bookshop
Melbourne’s only dedicated poetry bookshop is hidden away in the suitably bookish Nicholas Building. It specialises in the work of Australian poets but also has a large stock of international writers and poetry in translation. Staff will happily order in the most obscure of titles for you too.
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Gertrude & Alice
This shambolic secondhand bookshop and cafe is so un-Bondi: there’s not a model or a surfer in sight. Locals, students and academics hang out reading, drinking coffee and acting like Americans in Paris. Join them for some lentil stew and theological discourse around communal tables.
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M
Kinokuniya
Wrapping around the TGV atrium, Kinokuniya, the largest bookstore in Sydney, has over 300,000 titles. The comics section is a magnet for geeky teens – the imported Chinese, Japanese and European magazine section isn’t. There’s a cool little cafe here, too.
reviewed
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N
Ariel
Furtive artists, photographers, architects and students roam Ariel’s aisles late into the night. ‘Underculture’ is the thrust here – glossy art, film, fashion and design books, along with kids’ books, travel guides and a queer-lit section.
reviewed
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O
Zabriskie Booksellers
Do bushy-bushy blonde surfies read books? If the crowds at Zabriskie’s are anything to go by, the answer must be yes. This tiny cultural oasis in Bondi’s literary desert has more books than space – staff scramble up ladders to the top shelves.
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P
Lesley McKay's Bookshop
It's located a bit outside the centre, but if you make it here you'll find an excellent range of fiction, non-fiction, biography and history titles. There's an especially good selection of children's books, too, and the knowledgeable staff won't let you down.
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Q
Kay Craddock Antiquarian Bookseller
In the basement of a neogothic building, Kay Craddock has an impressive collection of antiquarian and secondhand books, from the 15th to the 21st centuries. There’s a hoard of local curiosities as well intriguing books about books and book-collecting.
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R
Artisan Books
This moody-looking shop keeps a wonderful range of books, periodicals and exhibition catalogues on art, craft, design and material culture. It also hosts exhibitions of local craftwork from beanies to baskets to ceramics. Staff are knowledgeable too.
reviewed
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S
Coventry Bookstore
A fab independent bookstore with a good travel section as well as titles that appeal to the designers, architects and ad-land creatives that work around here. It’s warm and woody and there’s also a special children’s area.
reviewed
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Sticky
If you’re after a little tram reading, head underground to Sticky, where local zinesters staple and photocopy together their latest minibooks about local indie music, crap temp jobs or bleeding-edge comics.
reviewed
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Polyester Books
Take kinky and rude and then go several steps beyond. This unapologetic shop specialises in literature, magazines and audiovisual materials on topics from satanic cult sex to underground comics, and everything in between.
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Avenue Books
Everyone needs a neighbourhood bookshop like this one, full of nooks and crannies to perch with literary fiction, cooking, gardening, art and children’s books. Cluey staff make spot-on recommendations too.
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Berkelouw Books, Newtown
Six generations of Berkelouws have specialised in secondhand books and printed rarities since setting up shop in Holland in 1812, but its contemporary stores are just as good for new releases and coffee sipping.
reviewed
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Hill of Content
Old-fashioned bookshop with a wide range of general books as well as an extensive stock of arts, classics and poetry. It showcases covetable visual-arts titles from publisher Thames & Hudson.
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Dymocks
Heavy on the bestsellers, this mammoth, mainstream bookstore has more than 250,000 titles spread over three floors (including a helluva lot of Lonely Planet guides!). Stationery and a cafe, too.
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