It's been a long, bleak winter here in Melbourne, so it's been great to enjoy a warm, sunny, spring-like weekend. With spring, then summer, on the way, people will be getting out and about more, so I thought I'd update this blog with a post on a fabulous second-hand bookshop I visited over winter.
The Known World is owned by Michelle Coxall, who I knew - very fleetingly - through work in the late 1990s. Her beautiful bookshop is located at 28 Main Road, Bakery Hill, Ballarat, and stocks high-quality books, including art and history books, modern first editions, and vintage children's books. Don't miss the passageway leading to a staircase that takes you down to a second room full of books.
Michelle has run a second-hand bookshop for a couple of decades now, at various locations in and around Ballarat - many booklovers will remember The Known World's predecessor, Buninyong Books in nearby Buninyong. It is always a joy to explore her bookshop - she's selective with what she stocks, so whatever you're looking for, if she has it, you're going to go home with a lovely copy.
There is, as everyone knows, plenty to do at Ballarat, including visiting Sovereign Hill and the Eureka Centre. This part of Victoria has a number of second-hand bookshops to explore, so it's worth spending a day driving around the Goldfields region to visit them.
I haven't been getting out and about as much as I'd like, and because I don't post very much, this blog receives little engagement. I'm wondering whether to stop blogging here and move all future second-hand bookshop posts over to my Instagram account. My Insta account is currently a mish-mash of posts about my writing, my favourite vintage books, and my visits to second-hand bookshops and other literary places. I'm thinking of making it less of a mish-mash and focusing mainly on second-hand bookshops and my favourite vintage books - more of a hobby account than a writing account.
If you see this post, let me know what you think of this idea. I shall leave this blog up regardless, so people visiting Victoria can find the bookshops I've blogged about (those that have survived the last few years, at any rate).
And if you've a trip to Ballarat planned, don't forget to check out The Known World.
