Bound Words

If you're a 'girlsowner', there's nothing quite like the feeling of walking into a new-to-you second-hand bookshop and discovering it has an extensive collection of vintage kidlit.

It's always a bit like time-travel finding shelves full of titles by authors like Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Angela Brazil, Enid Blyton etc. Especially when there are plenty of hardbacks!

So I was delighted to discover Bound Words in Hampton over the weekend. It contains the best selection of vintage kidlit I've seen for a while. There was even a Girls Gone By title in there - The Mystery at the Chalet School with the short story, Robin Heeds the Call. It is water damaged, but still a perfectly good reading copy, and only $7 should anyone reading this be interested in buying it.

The children's books are in the very back room of the three-room bookshop. Non-fiction (including art, music, history and education, as well as - somewhat incongruously - plays) is in the first room, with general fiction in the second.

There are lots of eateries and shops in Hampton, and Bound Words isn't far from the beach. I'll definitely be heading back there over the next few months.

City Basement Books

It's been a while since I posted - and that's because it's been a while since I visited any second-hand bookshops. November was a busy month for our family - our son finished school (and had Year 12 exams) and we also spent some time showing off parts of Melbourne and Victoria to overseas visitors.

But I'm back on the bookshop trail now, starting with the brilliant City Basement Books in Melbourne's CBD. As you can tell from the name, City Basement Books is below street level - it's also much bigger than you expect, with an enormous amount of stock.

The usual suspects like crime, fantasy/sci fi and general fiction are well represented, and there's also a large history and travel section. But there's also a section for plays and books about the theatre, and even a shelf just for books about bushrangers. There's a cute little separate room for children's books, which at the moment has a bookcase dedicated to Christmas.

This is a place you could lose yourself in for several hours and the staff are helpful and knowledgable. It's conveniently located in Flinders Street, close to both trains and trams.