Trip to the House of Books in Mitcham and Suggestions for Australian Books to Read

[@BookwormAdventureGirl]

Impressive! I like alphabetically ordered. 😊💙

[@SoniaKnits]

I read Tirra Lirra for school, I've been thinking about reading it again recently, such a score at $3!

[@LifeLessonsFromBooks]

Read it, and let me know what you think. Usually (well in my experience anyway), when we read our school texts, they make more sense to us as adults. Back at school, they were a pain to read. Such a waste to not have truly understood them back then. 🤣

[@andyjones1899]

OMG your in my hood and my go to shop..I go here probably once a week..I was going to mention it to you..also there are 5 op shops about 3 minutes apart from The House of Books where I do my book trawling..also not far from here in a shopping centre is a Community Hub where they get and give books for free..the other day I got a new copy of Yellowface and Crime and Punishment all free..i reckon I know every op shop and 2nd hand book shop in the east..only ever bought one new book Lessons by Ian Mcewan ..I'd buy his discarded pencil shavings..

[@LifeLessonsFromBooks]

Wow, there you go. I loved the House of Books! So glad I went there. The staff were very lovely and I enjoyed looking around there. I wasn’t aware of the community hub as mitcham isn’t in my neck of the woods. I’m so glad we have lots of choices for books here!!

[@julieatherton3217]

Hi , Here in England we have a book cycle where I live , you can donate books and choose 3 books a day to take away for a donation. I use the library and charity shops . However I do buy new ones as books are quite reasonably priced here especially the popular ones 😊

[@LifeLessonsFromBooks]

Oooh i like the book cycle idea! Is that run by the local council/community group?

[@julieatherton3217]

@@LifeLessonsFromBooks It’s a volunteer run charity which aims to provide free books and educational resources to children and adults

[@LifeLessonsFromBooks]

It’s a brilliant idea and good on them for doing this. I haven’t heard of anything like this here. I’m sure there are some about. I know the U3As (University of Third Age), schools for retirees in different suburbs have book exchanges and it’s where sometimes I drop books off (and borrow/buy) too.

[@elizabethdoran7626]

I buy books at op shops,fetes,garage sales,second hand book sellers all the time.99% of my nooks are second hand ❤

[@elizabethdoran7626]

Books not nooks😂

[@LifeLessonsFromBooks]

🤣

[@booksandallthatjazz1654]

Thanks for your recommendation of ‘The Land Before Avocado’ which I am a third of the way through. A delightful read. ‘Tirra Lirra by the River’ is a very good novel, as is Jessica Anderson’s ‘The Impersonators’., both shortlisted for the Miles Franklin award. I retired 13 years ago and have frequented op shops, lions bookshops and Oxfam weekly and subsequently have around 2,000 books to be read! I find it hard to resist a bargain! What makes it worse is that I borrow from the library, always reading all the NBA, Pulitzer, Booker and Miles Franklin shortlists and Nobel Prize winners via the library. I have got to the point where I am trying not to visit bookshops. Bookshops that sell new books do not interest me as they rarely stock literary fiction of European and South American authors. Also I do not like the large paperbacks that have taken over from hardcovers! I could never afford hardcover books but through Oxfam and Lions I have a good collection of hardcover first editions! Happy reading!

[@LifeLessonsFromBooks]

Thank you for responding. You do have a lot of books to read! I still like visiting bookstores and I can understand your feelings towards them. After all, just wait a while and you’ll be able to find them at second hand book stores anyway - or at a library.

[@heathergregg9975]

"The land before avocado@?! ha ha! "Tira Lira" looks fab. Alphabetised and categorised sounds like a dream. There's a charity shop near me where the books are organised by colour of spine. You can find NOTHING. It's so foolish. I bet if the person who organised the shelves went to their local library and found the same, they would be first to shout "But how can I FIND that book on mountaineering when I don't know what colour the spine is?"

[@LifeLessonsFromBooks]

I cracked up with this. Hilarious! What is this idea about spine colour?! Who even came up with it?! 🤣

[@heathergregg9975]

@@LifeLessonsFromBooks not a reader, manifestly! nor a librarian. an archivist would go red with anger. Perhaps an interior decorator - the type of person who buys leather bound volumes by the yard, to go with their library decor in the room where they watch TV? It is a thing. Have you not come across it before?

[@LifeLessonsFromBooks]

@@heathergregg9975 the only place I’ve seen this way of organisation is in some Instagram photos (when I was on IG a few years ago before I deleted it) of some people stacking their bookshelves in colour order. 🤣

[@LifeLessonsFromBooks]

On another note, (and slightly similar) is I’ve always been fascinated by the French having all white books. I think there’s a publisher (Gallimard? 🤔) that publishes books in the same style of white cover with a red stripe. I’ve seen photos of these and they look pretty good (but they also have the title on the spine) In fact, when I was in Paris some years ago, even the hotel we stayed in had these books on their shelves so it was all white. I do wonder what books they publish though 🤣

[@heathergregg9975]

@@LifeLessonsFromBooks I know! I've seen them in Parisian apartments owned by beautiful fashionably emaciated magazine editors. I think of all that missed art covers - although I'm not fond of the current fad for blocky awkward pink, turquoise and yellow designless fiction covers which look like a five-year old doodling on his granny's ipad. It makes all those books look samey.