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.

Mountains of Books

The great thing about the Mountains of Books book fair is that it gives local bookworms a chance to arrive early without setting the alarm for the crack of dawn. So, after a leisurely breakfast, I turned up not long after the doors opened.

There didn't seem to be as many stallholders as in previous years, and one stall was mostly devoted to trading cards (mostly footy and cricket). But there was a good crowd of people, which was great given the heavy rain will have put a few tourists off coming up the mountain today. Readers and collectors will find a diverse range of books at the fair, including a wide variety of Australian history books.

But the drawcard for me and many other visitors is Jilly Bookworm's stall. Her books are mainly 'girlsown' and 'boysown' hardbacks, all in great condition. Because she operates online, this is a rare chance to drool over her amazing stock - and hopefully find something you want to buy. I completed my Chalet School collection with a purchase from her stall a few years ago. Today I spotted heaps of Blytons, some Brent-Dyers and Savilles, as well as titles by Ivy L. Wallace, Antonia Forest and Dorita Fairlie Bruce.

 The book fair is open till 4 today, and again from 10 till 4 tomorrow, and it's an indoorsy thing to do on a wet weekend - so get along there if you can.  Details here.

It's Mountains of Books time again

The annual Mountains of Books book fair takes place again this weekend. Held at Ferny Creek, it always attracts great stallholders and a good crowd of booklovers. I'll certainly be spending part of my weekend there. Say hello if you see me.

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.