The Known World

 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.

Time Booksellers

 

You know the expression "Never judge a book by its cover"? Well, the same applies about never judging a bookshop's stock by its premises.

I was a bit taken aback to pull up outside a soulless-looking warehouse in an industrial estate in Somerville. Could this really be a bookshop?

But when we stepped inside Time Booksellers, it was like entering the Tardis. Not only is this a bookshop, it's an enormous bookshop. More than that, though, it's not like being inside a warehouse. It has a real antiquarian bookshop feel, complete with old-fashioned ticking clocks and fine-quality books.

There are thousands of books here, so many that's it's almost overwhelming. Their specialist area is Australian history, including Aboriginal history, military history, and history books about Australia's various states.

There is also an emphasis on literature - mostly Australian literature, but also UK and US literature.  I don't think I've ever seen so many volumes of poetry in a bookshop before. There's also a collection of chess books that Beth Harmon would be proud to own!

Sports books are upstairs, along with even more history books. The owners are planning to extend their collection with a newly built mezzanine section that's just waiting for more bookcases to be installed.

Time Booksellers is open by appointment during the week. However, the owners recommend that if you know what you're looking for, their website is the best starting-point. That way you can see what they stock, and either order online or go in to check out the books.

This makes a lot of sense, as the bookshop is so enormous that you could probably have spent Melbourne's July-November lockdown in there and still not have seen everything. 

 

Books at Yarck

I'd never heard of the tiny Goulburn Valley township of Yarck until the other day when we stopped there on the way back from Euroa. But I'll definitely be going back because among its few facilities is a gorgeous bookshop.

Books at Yarck has a great collection of books, from cookery and gardening books near the front of the shop to crime fiction and sports titles in the smaller room at the back. The sports section was well stocked with Olympic histories (something I also noticed at the bookshop in Euroa), so if you want to mug up on previous Olympic Games in the run-up to Tokyo, you'll find some great books here.

A sofa near the children's section allows you to peruse the books in comfort and there's a fire for cold winter's days.

Books are reasonably priced and there are some great bargains to be found in the trolleys outside the shop.

There's a bakery just down the road from the bookshop, but there's not much to do in Yarck. However, book lovers won't need anything else when they visit - searching this gem of a bookshop for treasures will be more than enough. 

The Already Read Bookshop

What's even better than coming across a gorgeous, well-stocked second-hand bookshop in a small country town?

Discovering that every dollar you spend in that bookshop goes to supporting the town's library, that's what.

The Already Read Bookshop in Euroa's main street is entirely staffed by Friends of the Library volunteers. It sells jigsaw puzzles, DCDs, records and magazines as well as books.

And what a great selection of books it has. An entire room is devoted to Australiana, which includes history and reference books, sporting memoirs and histories, novels by old and modern day Australian authors, as well as stacks of once-popular magazines.

All the genres, including crime and romance, are represented in the main room, and there's a particularly impressive collection of Penguin classic paperbacks, most of them with the distinctive orange spines.

Prices are colour coded and very reasonably priced. There are some great bargains to be found here, including the three history books I snagged for $7. 

The Already Read Bookshop has a lovely, welcoming atmosphere, and is only a short walk away from the library it supports.

We found another delightful second-hand bookshop on our way home, and I'll blog about that in a couple of days.

Euroa is a quiet town with a community rather than touristy feel. It has some great cafes and bakeries for lunch or morning tea. 

Paradise Books

 

Back in the early 2000s, when I started re-collecting girlsown fiction, Daylesford in central Victoria was one of my favourite places to visit. It had two brilliant bookshops - Paradise Books (then called Avant Garden) in a former bank building in the main street, and the lakeside Book Barn.

Paradise Books/Avant Garden contained 14 rooms on two levels stocked with a mixture of second-hand and new books, comics, sheet music, and CDs and DVDs. It boasted a huge collection of vintage children's books - a beautiful copy of Dimsie Among The Prefects was among several purchases I made there.  

The Book Barn was gorgeous in a different way - one large, split-level room, with a woodfire in winter and an amazing view over the lake. The well-stocked children's section was near the fire, giving it a cosy feel.

But times change. I visited Daylesford yesterday for the first time in eight years, and sadly the Book Barn closed its doors two years ago. There's a cafe there at the moment, but it was closed.

Paradise Books is still there, however, offering the same eclectic mix. The main room (where the counter is) is now totally devoted to new books, with the second-hand books arranged by subject in the other rooms. There's a good range of second-hand detective fiction, but the stock of vintage children's books seemed very depleted. I'm assuming it's been hard to get hold of stock over the past year because of the various lockdowns and restrictions. I spotted some Lorna Hills and a copy of Ivy L Wallace's Strangers at Warrender's Halt, so it's still worth girlsowners dropping in to see if there's anything they want for their collections.

 

One room I always visit on the second floor is the one with all the comics. I always look to see if there are any copies of old girls' comics and there never are - but yesterday I spotted a pile of Bonnie comics. The title meant nothing to me, but it looks like it was a contemporary of Bunty and Tammy. There were also copies of some old comics aimed at very young children in the 1960s and 1970s - Playhour and Jack and Jill.

 

Daylesford has changed a lot since our last visit, and doesn't 'feel' as family-friendly as it was 20 years ago. It has lots of cafes and restaurants, and there's nearby Hepburn Springs for spa treatments, if that's your thing. Outdoor types can enjoy plenty of bushwalks around the area. Bibliophiles will want to explore other nearby(ish) towns with bookshops, including Castlemaine, Woodend, Ballarat and Kyneton.

Through the Looking Glass in Sassafras

 

So many shops in and around Melbourne have closed as a result of lockdown, so I was amazed and thrilled to discover that Sassafras, on Mount Dandenong, has a new second-hand bookshop.

Through the Looking Glass opened around the time Melbourne's four-month-long lockdown ended, and couldn't be in a better location, right in Sassafras's main street.

If the name sounds familiar, that's because the owners have another bookshop just down the hill in Belgrave. I've reviewed the Belgrave shop previously, and it's fantastic that they are doing well enough in these challenged times to open a second bookshop.

The Sassafras shop is absolutely gorgeous inside - spacious and with lovely bookcases, old tables and chairs, and, of course, an eclectic range of books to browse. Their children's section tends towards more recent authors like John Flanagan and Rick Riordan, but there are some older books by authors like Enid Blyton as well. There's a large selection of fantasy and sci fi books to the left as you enter the shop and lots of contemporary and literary fiction.

If you're up in the hills for the day, Sassafras has several cafes and gift shops, and you don't have to travel very far to find pubs, restaurants, and more cafes and gift shops. Alfred Nicholas Gardens and the Dandenong Ranges Botanical Gardens (aka the National Rhododendron Gardens) are also close by.

If you're visiting with kids, you might also want to check out the nearby Olinda Pool and Olinda Playspace.  

As a local, I'm delighted to see another second-hand bookshop in the hills. With the Belgrave and Sassafras shops, along with Rainy Day Books in The Basin and Kallista Books in Kallista, it could well be time for the Dandenong Ranges Second-hand Bookshop Trail from around 10 years ago to be revived.

Marysville BookNest

This past week has seen the 'ring of steel' between the Melbourne lockdown area and regional Victoria finally lifted - so, of course, my husband and I have been out and about, enjoying some long walks in places we haven't been to for months.

I'm pleased to report that Warburton's Wee Warbee Bookshop has survived the long lockdown period, and it looks as if the Marysville BookNest has as well. We visited Marysville on Tuesday, and the bookshop is open from Wednesday to Sunday, but certainly the building (a replica of the town's original police office) still appears to contain the bookshop, which opened almost three years ago, in January 2018.

Next time we visit Marysville, we'll make sure we go on a day the bookshop is open, so I can blog about it.

If you're in the area, it's worth visiting Bruno's Art and Sculpture Garden in the town as well as the nearby Steavenson Falls. Marysville is also close to Lake Mountain, which is great for hiking in summer and (I'm told) cross-country skiing in winter. 

ETA: Marysville's BookNest is open on Saturdays, Sundays and public holiday Mondays from 11 till 3. More information is on their website. Thanks to Ian from the BookNest for updating me re. this. 

Little library at Wandin

Now that we can exercise within a 25km radius rather than the 5km one, my husband and I have walked a couple of sections of the Lilydale to Warburton rail trail. This follows the path of the former railway line, and is primarily used by walkers, cyclists and horse riders. 

Near what used to be the old Wandin railway station is a little library. Pre-COVID-19 I used to always carry a book in my backpack, so I could swap it if I came across a title I wanted in a little library. That's something I'm going to have to start doing again as Melbourne opens up.

Shops are still closed for a couple more weeks, so I'm going to look out for little libraries on my walks, and let you know of their existence should you also plan on exploring the outer easern suburbs as the restictions ease.

Syber's Books

What's better than one second-hand bookshop run by a knowledgeable person? Two! And with Syber's Books you get exactly that.

Syber's Books is run by a husband and wife team and consists of a bookshop in Malvern and a warehouse in nearby Caulfield. Penny runs the shop and David looks after the warehouse. Although they call it a warehouse, it's open to browsers. Both premises are open daily from midday till around 5.30.

Syber's Books, Malvern

We visited the Malvern shop first - it's bigger than it looks from outside, and my go-to section, the children's books, can be found right at the back. In several places, the signs on the shelves didn't match the books on them, so I'm not sure whether that's a permanent thing, or whether the shelves were in the process of being rearranged.

There were a couple of cats wandering around the bookshop, and there was a cat smell towards the back of the shop that bothered me but not my husband (I like cats but have never had one, whereas my husband grew up with cats). Hence I didn't spend long looking at the children's books, but the titles I saw were mostly more recent - from the 1990s onwards. The sports book section (also near the back of the shop) was impressive, with a good many cricket titles.

The warehouse in Caulfield is huge, with so many books that you could spend hours browsing. No children's books are stocked there, but there are extensive crime and sci fi fantasy sections for readers in those genres.

The warehouse also contains a section on alcohol and there are plenty of cookbooks (David is a MasterChef fan). Both Penny and David know their trade well, and also sell online, if you live too far away to visit.

Penny's shop is at 227 Glenferrie Road, Malvern, while David's warehouse can be found at 666 Glenhuntly Road, Caulfield.

Syber's Books, Caulfield

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.

Little libraries

I really enjoy coming across little libraries and looking to see what's in them. Recently, I had a run of finding books I wanted and then having to return the next day to replace what I'd taken. So now I've taken to slipping a book in my bag or the car, just in case. (And, of course, sod's law - I haven't found anything I want since I started doing that!)

I'd quite like to set up a little library outside our house, but until then there are a few favourite ones that I check out when I'm on my travels. Locally, there is one near Lilydale Lake, outside Lilydale Aged Care, and another in the Alchester shopping area in Boronia. The Boronia one is outside the Koko Lime Cafe, which I haven't been to, but it seems very popular, indicating the coffee is good. 

Little library near Lilydale Lake

Little library in Alchester, Boronia

I'll start adding little libraries to this blog, when I come across them. They're a great way of both coming across second-hand books and passing on books you don't want to keep.

Wee Warbee Bookshop

Yesterday, we visited Warburton and dropped in on the Wee Warbee Bookshop. As the name suggests, this is a tiny shop - and it's made even smaller by the chaotic piles of books that tumble over half the room.

As you'll know if you've read my blog before, bookshop chaos prompts me to walk out rather than hunt. However, I enjoyed a brief chat with the friendly owner while my husband explored some of the piles.

Wee Warbee Bookshop sells new as well as second-hand books, with the new books on the shelves and the second-hand stock in piles. Other than that, nothing is divided into sections, and there are no prices on the books - you ask the owner and he tells you what it is.

Book lovers willing to spend a long time fossicking will like this bookshop. Note that most of the second-hand stock appeared to be relatively recent (1990s onwards), so I'm not sure that you'd find any early to mid twentieth century gems tucked away.

Warburton is located on the Yarra, and there's a beautiful walk you can do along the riverbanks, with suspension bridges to take you over to the other side. There are plenty of eateries nearby.

And finally, apologies for taking such a long time between posts. It's been a busy time and we haven't been out and about very much.

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.

Beach bookshops

Today has that air of summer about it, reminding me that we'll soon be able to swap reading by the fire for reading in the hammock or on the beach.

If you're heading to the Mornington Peninsula this summer and want to pick up some beach reading, a great place to head is Books by the Bay in Mornington. Right opposite the beach and conveniently next door to a cafe, Books by the Bay has lots of crime fiction, including contemporary trade paperbacks for $7.50 each. It also has a bookcase full of vintage crime, including 1970s Agatha Christie Fontana and Pan paperbacks for $3.50 each.

Note that they're all $3.50 regardless of condition. I found two copies of Cat Among the Pigeons, and one was in much better condition than the other, so it pays to check these shelves carefully if there's a title you particularly want.

Inside Books by the Bay

 
The bookshop is well stocked with true crime, including drug crime, corporate crime and scandals, and has great sections on history (especially World War II), fantasy and exploration. The owner is friendly and knowledgeable.

Mornington has another second-hand bookshop, Chapter House Books, in the town itself. Unfortunately it was closed when we visited. I always find this annoying, especially on a weekend, when you expect shops in tourist towns to be open. It doesn't help that many second-hand bookshops don't list opening times on their website (if they have a website at all). Anyway, a peek through the window showed that they sell contemporary romance, biographies and thrillers, as well as popular children's fiction from the 1990s. I'll have to review this bookshop another time.

Finally, Mornington has a gorgeous contemporary bookshop, Farrell's, which boasts an excellent children's section and is well worth a browse if you're in the area.

Sainsbury's Books

The name Sainsbury's will probably always conjure up images of the UK supermarket chain for this Pommie migrant, but here in Melbourne, it's the name of an absolutely gorgeous antiquarian and second-hand bookshop in Camberwell.

Sainsbury's Books is very well laid out with shelves devoted to art, history, military history, motoring, general fiction and collectibles, including rugs, ceramics, silverware etc. There a lot of old British texts, as well as books about Asia and the Middle East.

 For my own interests, the crime shelves consisted mainly of trade paperbacks by popular authors. The children's section was a tad disappointing for me, containing mostly picturebooks, and only a few vintage GOish titles, mainly Arthur Ransome and Mary Grant Bruce.

I did, however, find two excellent titles in the history section, which will help me with some research I'm doing.

Sainsbury's Books has been around for more than 30 years, and it's great to see that it's still doing well. The staff are knowledgeable and the bookshop was busy on the day I visited.

Sainsbury's Books is in Riversdale Road. Just round the corner in Butler Street, you'll find a cute little street library, so come armed with a book or two in case there's something you'd like in there.

Books for the beach

It's been a long winter here in Melbourne, but every now and then the sun shines and we get a glimpse of summer. Which means - hopefully - it'll soon be time to hit the beach.

If you're planning a holiday or weekend in south Gippsland and want some good beach reads, a great bookshop to head for is the Ramalama Book Exchange in Wonthaggi. It's long moved from its original location and is now on the corner of Murray Street and McBride Avenue, just up the road from Woolworths.

The building was originally a bank, and still has some of the old counters, giving it a bit of character. The rooms at the back house different genres - to my delight, the crime and children's books are in the same room, and there are also rooms full of science fiction and fantasy, and romance and what the sign calls 'chook lit'. Most of the books are trade paperbacks, most of them are fairly recent, and they're only $8 each. The crime section is very well stocked, with titles byTess Gerritsen, Stuart MacBride and Michael Robotham and other top sellers. You'll find the occasional lesser known author, including Australian authors, in there too.

Ramalama is, obviously, also a book exchange, and it's also started to sell vintage clothes. I didn't take a look to see if they were any good, but they may be of interest to some readers of this blog.

The Castlemaine Bookshop Trail: Part 2

 Just a short drive from Castlemaine, Book Heaven is a sprawling bookshop crammed with around 100,000 books. Whatever your genre, one of the nine rooms at Book Heaven will have at least a couple of bookcases full of titles to choose from. As an example, its well-stocked sports section not only has shelves devoted to footy and cricket, but it also includes books about minority sports. I even found a couple of gymnastics titles from the 'Golden Era' period of the late 1970s, so bonus points there.

Other sections include sci-fi, travel, music, movies, Australiana, farming, dogs, horses, war, and even journalism and publishing.

Anyone who reads this blog will know by now that my go-to place in any bookshop is the children's section. If I was delighted by the sports books, I was disappointed by the children's books. There are lots of shelves devoted to them, but most of them were titles published from the 1990s onwards. Any old hardbacks were of the Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Heidi variety, that have been published over and again. No rare titles in sight.

The music section at Book Heaven

Something that struck me as odd about the children's section was that it was next to the fire. As it was a cold day the fire was going, which was fine for me as a browsing adult. But if I'd gone in with a young child, I'd have been a bit worried about it.

While 100,000 books should be every reader's idea of heaven (hence the name, I guess!), I must confess I found having so many rooms of books a bit overwhelming. This, I am sure, was because we only had a few hours in Castlemaine, and couldn't spare the amount of time needed to delve properly into the delights this bookshop has to offer. So if you visit Castlemaine, be aware that you could easily devote an entire morning or afternoon to browsing at Book Heaven.

After leaving Book Heaven, we had lunch, then headed for the final bookshop on the Castlemaine trail: Soldier & Scholar. This bookshop's reputation precedes it: two years ago there was an article in a local newspaper about a sign the owner had put up asking people to enter the shop only if they wanted to buy a book. She didn't just want browsers.

I couldn't see the sign when we visited, though there were several others around the shop and in the window. And as soon as we entered, the owner asked us if there were any particular titles we were looking for. "No," I replied. "We're just browsing."

"Are there any particular genres you're looking for?" she pressed.

One of the signs at Soldier & Scholar

 
"Well, I usually like to look at the children's section..."

The children's section turned out to be right next to the counter, so while my husband disappeared further into the shop to check out the history shelves, I continued fielding questions about which authors I was interested in while trying to spot titles among the double-stacking. From what I could see, the children's section seemed to consist of more recent titles plus some Enid Blytons. Maybe if I'd asked, she might have told me exactly where among the mostly inaccessible books there was a rare Brent-Dyer, but I really prefer to do my own hunting. After all, if I didn't enjoy the hunt, I'd simply go to Abebooks for those rare titles and have them posted to me.

Anyway, my husband found a book he wanted in the history section, so we ended up buying a book and it was smiles all round. That he was left alone to browse and found something and I was put off browsing by the questioning makes me wonder how many other booklovers are put off by their experience.

Cookery books and celebrity titles

As you'd expect from the name of the bookshop, there are plenty of military history and academic books here. But there are lots of other sections too, including cookery books, celebrity autobiographies, and a good deal of non-military history. Bookworms will find much to look at here. But you'll be welcomed more if you know exactly what you're looking for.

So that was the trail done and I'm sure we'll head back there down the track! We didn't have much time to explore many of the town's other attractions, but enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Saffs Cafe in Mostyn Street, and went for a circuit walk at the nearby Goldfields Track.

The Castlemaine Bookshop Trail: Part 1

Over the weekend, we headed out to Castlemaine, a former gold-mining town north-west of Melbourne. There are plenty of bookshops in the goldfields region, but we only had time to explore Castlemaine on this visit. Castlemaine has its own bookshop trail, with a helpful map to help you find the bookshops.

Since the map was printed, Books Plus has closed (though it may now have a stall at the nearby Castlemaine Vintage Bazaar, which we didn't visit). Stoneman's Bookroom no longer has a second-hand section, the owner explaining that with so many second-hand bookshops close by, it was better to focus on selling contemporary books. It's a beautiful, well-stocked bookshop with an extensive children's section, so it's certainly worth checking out if you're looking for new or recent releases.

Our first stop on the bookshop trail was Mount of Alex, opened seven years ago by owner Andrew Long. This elegant and atmospheric bookshop contains a wide range of books in excellent condition. There are vintage children's paperbacks on the bookshelves to the right as you enter the shop (I found a copy of A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley, which I'd been looking for forever), with hardbacks to the left (including, when I visited, a lovely copy of Louise Mack's Teens). Crime hardbacks, ranging from Golden Age to more recent, are in one of the alcoves further into the shop. The owner is extremely knowledgeable, and says his aim with the shop is to create an antiquarian feel. He's definitely succeeded in that. This is a bookshop we'll certainly return to.

From there, we walked up to Soldier & Scholar, but discovered it didn't open until 2pm. So it was back in the car and a quick drive to nearby Campbells Creek to visit Book Heaven.

To be continued...

A bookshop not just for a rainy day

Former school librarian Meryll Williams named her bookshop Rainy Day Books after a friend remarked on how much she liked reading on a rainy day.

Well, Rainy Day Books, in The Basin at the foot of Mount Dandenong, is worth a visit whatever the weather.

Meryll's speciality is children's books, particularly 'girlsown' books like the Chalet School, etc. But the bookshop also has a well-stocked crime section, including a bookcase devoted to cosy crime, along with romance, sci fi and general fiction. There's a very good history section too, including books and brochures on local history.

Rainy Day Books has been open since 2006 and is one of only two bookshops (the other one is Kallista Books) that still survive from the old Dandenong Ranges and Yarra Valley Book Trail that Meryll helped set up in around 2007.

Meryll also helped establish the annual Mountains of Books Book Fair that takes place in Ferny Creek over Melbourne Cup weekend.

There are a couple of local cafes and a playground across the road should you want coffee or lunch or somewhere to let the kids burn off energy. We always have coffee at the Chocolate Dragonfly, but the other local cafe always seems busy so it must be good too.

Organised chaos!

When I visit a second-hand bookshop, I'm on the hunt for specific books - usually a 'girlsown' or crime fiction title that's missing from my collection.

My husband, on the other hand, isn't looking for anything in particular, but likes to browse and see if he can turn up anything quirky.

Guess which one of us copes best with a visit to McLeods Books in Nunawading?

To be fair to the owner, if you ask her where something is, she can tell you. And there are signs around the shop informing you whereabouts you can find bestsellers like Nora Roberts and Jodi Picoult. But the piles of books cluttering the floor, the double-stacking of shelves and the lack of alphabetical order don't make me want to hang around.

My husband, though, was happy to settle in and rummage, and found an old book he was interested in buying. There was no price on it, and the owner did a quick internet search and decided she didn't want to sell it. She admitted she hadn't known it was in the shop, so lucky for her that he brought it to her attention.

Anyway, McLeods Books will be closing in a few weeks' time (most likely at the end of October) and the business is going online after 13 years as a bricks-and-mortar shop. The thousands of mostly paperback titles include a good range of crime fiction, and lots of romance and sci fi and fantasy. There are specific genre sales on at the moment, so it's well worth visiting if you're on the hunt for more reading material - as long as you can cope with the chaos!