Second Hand Bookstores- A Visit to Elizabeth's Bookshop

Breaking from my tradition of reviewing books on All Booked Up 2014, I thought I would do a BONUS! review of a bookstore and share some photos from my visit to the lovely Elizabeth's Bookshop on Pitt Street in Sydney, Australia.

 

If you have never visited before, Elizabeth's Bookshop is a quirky, second-hand bookstore full of unexpected books, hilarious recommendations and lots of surprise finds.

 

 

Wooden ladders, floor to ceiling bookshelves... bliss

 

Some interesting book placement

 

They also had a super cool 'Blind Date With a Book" section. This is a brilliant idea, and a great way to get people to read more. And they are wrapped charmingly in brown paper and tied up with string (Julie Andrews eat your heart out)
I Got one myself,

which ended up being, 'On the Ropes' by Tom Schrek, a novel I would have never heard of or bought if I didn't wander into Elizabeth's Bookshop that day. Elizabeth's Bookshop also allow you return the book if you have already read it, so win-win for everyone!

The staff were friendly and very knowledgeable- the man serving me on the day I visited was just the right ratio of hipster to booklover- and it is a great place to visit to loose yourself and find a great read.

Elizabeth's Bookshop is charming, and exactly what a bookshop should be. Carrying on with my usual rating at the end of the blog post, Elizabeth's gets
5 out of 5 stars.

 

 For those of you who remember- I started my blog by waxing lyrical about my Kindle. But what my challenge of reading 52 books this year has taught me, is to appreciate the printed book. I have remembered how much I love browsing through old bookshops. I still appreciate my Kindle, especially when reading huge novels like The Goldfinch or The Luminaries (do all big books have to start with 'The'?), but I am also now growing to love real books and bookshops again. Thanks to Elizabeth's Bookshop for reminding me how great bookshops can be!

 

Elizabeth's Bookshop has its own Facebook, Twitter and Website if you would like to find out more. Elizabeth's also has other bookshops across Australia.

If you live nowhere near Sydney Australia go visit your own local second hand bookshop, take the time to explore and support someone other than amazon.

 









All booked up 2014- reading and reviewing 52 Books in 52 Weeks

“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.” 
Diane Duane, author of 'So You Want to be a Wizard'

 

  

I belong to the special club that makes bookstore owners weep and true bibliophiles scorn- I own a Kindle.

 (Pic belongs to Adrian Tomine)

And I really like it. I can select from thousands of books whenever I want. I can read huge books without doing weird head tilts every second page. Books no longer cost upwards of $30 from overpriced bookstores. I can go traveling and not have to carry the three or four books I've half finished with me. I no longer have to trawl through my local council library to try and find a book I haven't previously read or one that isn't called ‘The Pirate’s Mistress’ or ‘Legacy of lust’ with a cover that features a woman trying to fuse to a man with either luscious flowing locks or a waxed chest. 

(Well gosh)

With my Kindle I can now read basically any eBook that exists thanks to the interwebs.

But despite having access to all these books on my Kindle, I hardly read at all. As a child my bedside table would be perpetually be overflowing with books. I loved losing myself, and any chances of schoolyard popularity, in a novel and wouldn't emerge until the novel and all its sequels were finished. I even tried reading with a flashlight under the covers of my bed until I discovered it was super uncomfortable and that the children who tried it in the movies obviously never read for more than three minutes at a time. (Being a child actor is not really synonymous with being a bookworm). But now, It's time to get back to what I loved most as I grew up.

So, this year, I have set myself a challenge of reading 

52 books in 52 weeks.
These are my guidelines:

1. I will read as varied as possible a selection and step outside of my comfort zone of just reading award winning novels.
2. I won’t read anything I’ve read before.
3. I will read books I can’t find reviews for online.
4. I will read books in hard copy and not just on my Kindle.
5. I will read books in genres I haven’t before.
6. I will read one book in French or German (my two half fluent backup languages)
7. I will read a book by an author I dislike or in a genre I hate.
8. I will take suggestions of books and read them.
9. Buy books from second hand bookstores and support someone other than Amazon for a change.
10. I will document it all by reviewing each book here after I’ve read them.

So being the first week of January, the week where New Year’s Resolutions are normally fiercely forgotten, I have begun my challenge.

What have I started with?

 

The Husband’s secret- by Liane Moriarty

Funny considering it sounds exactly like the type of Mills and Boon novel I have been trying to avoid. However, there is a reason I chose a book described as a ‘holiday read’. Here's the Goodreads reviews page. Recently I have found myself struggling to stick to reading one book and not drift back to sitting in front of the TV. So this is my easy start to a year of reading.

One more day to finish it, with just over half completed. Time to go read.