Remember how it rained all last winter? Well
get set
for another rainy season, folks: as I write this I'm looking out on to a
rain-sodden Oxford Street. What with Sydney being all about
beaches and
carousing in the sun, we seem to cope less well with the wet and the cold.
But
there's so much this city has to offer, and in particular when it's
miserable out and the nights get too cold to venture outdoors, one of
the nicest things to do is hang out with a book. Or better yet, hang out
in one of Sydney's lovely independent bookshops, which we should all be
supporting.
With this in mind, we present to you our pick of Sydney's ten best bookstores.
Where: 46 Hall St, Bondi Beach
Wall to wall books. Books from ceiling to floor, interspersed with communal tables.
Gertrude & Alice is what
Shakespeare's
is to Paris, and provides a welcome haven amongst the surfers and
backpackers of Bondi Beach. The food served is fresh and universally
excellent, and it's one of the best places to go if you're feeling a bit
lonesome, because the welcoming communal tables ensure that you'll
always feel at home.
Named after Gertrude Stein and Alice B.
Toklas, the famous expat American couple who encouraged the careers of
Hemingway and Henry Miller, amongst others, there's a lot of heart to
this place, as well as lovely velvet sofas and delicious chai. They also
boast a Hemingway room, quieter and lined with reference books and the
perfect place to woo another attractive bookworm.
Where: 265 King Street, Newtown
I
have spent a lot of money in this place. I only realised how many times
I was in there over the summer when one of the sales girls said to me
"You're in here all the time, and I've always wanted to say I really
like your dresses." Which was lovely to hear, because the rest of my
scanty budget goes towards dresses.
Better Read Than Dead
have one of the best staff recommendation systems around, and they'll
often hook you up with things you'll love forever which you'd never find
on your own. Everyone working there is incredibly helpful and chatty if
you engage with them, but they'll otherwise leave you to your own
devices. Close to Camperdown Memorial Park, one of the nicest things to
do when it's sunny is to get yourself a book and find a tree to lie
under and read.
Where: 19 Oxford Street, Paddington, 8 O'Connell Street, Newtown, 70 Norton Street Leichhardt and 708 New South Head Road, Rose Bay
Berkelouw
are kind of everywhere right now - seriously, there's one adjacent to a
carpark in Cronulla. But each of them feels individual, and each of
them are awesome. The better branches of Berkelouw are the older ones:
Paddington and Leichhardt, as well as the newer, but adorable, Newtown
branch.
Berkelouw comes with a cafe and comfy leather couches for
you to squish up in and read for hours, and there's also
a separate second hand section which is always worth a look. I would
personally recommend the Newtown Berkelouw, if only because of its close
proximity to T2 and Guzman y Gomez, it's welcome student discount, and
the fact that the first time I went in they were playing The Smiths.
Where: 37 King St, Newtown
You
cannot argue with this place. It is the undisputed king of second-hand
books in Sydney. You could disappear into this place and never come out
again. I would wager you could find a gateway to Narnia in
Gould's.
With
a liberally relaxed policy when it comes to organisation, you'll find
Marxist histories of industrial labour sitting side by side with a 1996
travel guide to Slovakia. But stick around for a couple of hours (and
you can, it's open until midnight, after all) you'll find treasure for a
pittance. At the centre of the store was, until his death in May of
2011, Bob Gould himself, the silvery-bearded stalwart of Sydney's
sixties counter-culture who was once arrested for his anti-Vietnam and
anti-establishment activities.
Where: Level 2 The Galleries, 500 George Street, Sydney
Kinokniuya
is the only big chainstore included on the list, but this list would be
nothing without it. The Japanese bookstore giant believes in promoting
art and culture, not just hocking the best-selling pulp-literary tat to
people, and has been one of the most welcome additions to the city in
the past few years.
Kinokuniya is awesome - it has everything, the
stuff you can't find anywhere else, ever. You can spend hours hanging
out in the light-filled building which overlooks the criss-crossing
pedestrian traffic of the George and Park Street intersection. It boasts
an entire Japanese section, the best range of graphic novels and manga
and an incredible range of art and design books, as well as every kind
of fiction under the sun. Kinokuniya also features an in-store gallery
to showcase emerging artists.
Where: 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, 536 Marrickville Rd, Dulwich Hill and 191 Glebe Point Road, Glebe (Antiquarian & Second-Hand)
Gleebooks
is a Sydney institution. The city's most reliable independent
bookseller for many years, they stock an unbelievably vast range of
books; fiction and non-fiction alike, and often play host to talks by
international and national figures, including The Chaser boys.
When
they talk about independent booksellers being in peril, you know that
Gleebooks will be the last to go. Its second-hand and children's
sections are located further up Glebe Point Road, and are completely
worth the walk up the hill. Also, a Dulwich Hill branch recently opened
up which is a very welcome addition to an often neglected portion of the
Inner West.
Where: 42 Oxford St, Paddington and 103 George Street, The Rocks
Ariel
have a fantastic selection of art, architecture and design books
adorning their shelves. The shop's interior is open and clean, although
there are some delightful lanterns which pretty up the place, and it has
the benefit of being open until midnight.
Mostly it's the awesome
range of books and the atmosphere of the place which makes Ariel so
nice, but you can also get yourself a Moleskine, some Mexican kitsch
ornaments or some chocolate, if they take your fancy. A stone's throw
away from the College of Fine Arts and on the edge of the city's hipster
quarters, the place is filled with a mix of spaced-out locals, art
school kids and some very attractive bookish types.
Where: 51 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
Sappho's
is a cafe and wine bar as well as a second-hand bookshop, and has the
loyal custom of many of the local Sydney University students. The pokey
little shop has a huge range of books on every subject matter and has
been hosting regular poetry nights for the last couple of years.
You're
always certain to find what you're looking for, and often in really
nice editions: some of the copies from the '50s and '60s you'll find are
so nice you'll want to frame them. This is also the only place on this
list where you can sit with a book and a glass of wine, or a jug of
sangria, until the wee hours under the shade of the jasmine and banana
trees.
Where: 78 Oxford St, Paddington
So easy to miss amongst the tumultuous crowds on Oxford Street,
Ampersand is bigger than it looks from the street and a haven away from the city and the crowds.
With
a good range of second-hand books tucked away across three floors and
offering amazing, cheap first-edition copies of books like
The Master & Margarita and
The Human Stain,
Ampersand also wins on the coffee front - it is truly excellent.
Downstairs is a communal table if you feel like making some friends, or
you're perfectly welcome to hang out on your own.
Where: 127 Trafalgar Street, Annandale
Journeys
is another very cute bookstore and cafe, housed in a converted terrace,
where you're invited to flip through the pages of books while sipping
some tea. The titles are all handpicked, and there'a seriously good
travel section.
Upstairs is the best bit, a bright airy room
decked out with comfy couches, and surrounded by seven bookcases. Each
case represents a region of the world, and you'll find travel guides,
history, fiction and travel literature to match every country in that
part of the world. If you wish you were elsewhere there's no better
place to imagine it.
