National Bookshop Day...

The Paperback Bookshop, Bourke Street, Melbourne by Diego DeNicola via Flickr.

Today is inaugural National Bookshop Day in Australia. It's been a tough year for bricks and mortar bookshops this year so today is a great day to get out there and treat yourself to a book (or two, or three). Here are a few of my favourite haunts...

I love the Paperback Bookshop because it has a great selection of titles (particularly fiction) and because its open until 11pm most nights which makes it a great place to rendezvous with friends especially if you're on your own. The only problem is not buying too many books that then become a burden for the night!


Readings, Lygon Street, Carlton by Snipergirl via Flickr. Ah, Readings...my home away from home. I also love the store in Hawthorn. Amazing range and palpable love of books radiating from the walls...

Hill of Content, Bourke Street, Melbourne by Michael Coghlan via Flickr.

This little gem has had a number of new closures in past years but has somehow managed to hold on. I remember my Dad telling me about the Hill of Content when I was little. The first shop on the site opened in 1922 and was known form its 'quality antiquarian, second-hand and fine new books'. There are no second-hand books there now but its still a great place for high quality hardcovers of the 'coffee-table' variety especially in art and design, gardening and travel.

Image via

These days if I come over all antiquarian there is only one destination for me and that's Kay Craddocks Antiquarian Bookseller in Collins Street. Time Out Melbourne has described it as 'the sort of proper ye olde shop you expect to find magical ammulets...a fantastical place full of the finest, rarest books and probably a gateway to Narnia if you look hard enough.' See how exciting bookshops can be?!

Melbourne Belongs To Me

Originally uploaded to Flickr on August 30, 2009by Leigh/J/M

'This is where I belong,' he told himself. 'I belong to London and London belongs to me...'
London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins

Recently I have been reading a number of books that explore the notion of place and belonging. For Inspector Montalbano there is no place like his fictional home of Vigata, Sicily home to his favourite restaurant the Trattoria San Calogeno and the rock beneath the lighthouse where he goes to think with a bag of chickpeas and pumpkin seeds he buys at a stall on the way there. For Mr Josser in 'London Belongs To Me' it is Battlebury and Sons where he has worked all his adult life and for Holly Golightly in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' life is a never-ending search for a place that makes her feel as safe as she feels at Tiffany's.

So what is it to belong to a city? Do I belong to Melbourne? Does Melbourne belong to me? In his essay Novel and Place writer James Bradley talks about the fact that many writer's views of a city have been coloured by their own childhood memories. My earliest memories are indeed childhood ones when we would come to the city to meet up with my aunties and cousins in one of the many department store cafeterias that existed at the time (Coles, Myer, Waltons etc). As we got older it was movies in Bourke and Russell Streets often followed by lunch or a snack at the London Inn, an incredibly atmospheric little coffee lounge where we would invariably have grilled tomato, cheese and bacon.

As a teenager I started coming to the city on the train with friends and I remember Mum making us recite the city grid from the station so we wouldn't get lost, 'Spencer, King, William, Queen, Elizabeth, Swanston, Russell, Exhibition, Spring'. We didn't bother much with the grid going the other way as there was an unspoken rule that we would stick to Bourke and Collins Streets. When I finished school I went to university in Melbourne and since graduating have always worked in the city. Over the years I have seen the city grow to the south and the west and have delighted in the growth of laneways as places to explore food, fashion and art. I love the intimate feel of Melbourne, its nooks and crannies, its mix of edwardian, art deco and contemporary architecture. I love the fact that it is still a city on a human scale defined by the wonderful Hoddle grid. So yes I think I can safely say, 'I belong to Melbourne and Melbourne belongs to me'.