We chat with bookseller

Why do you work in books?

I have always loved books, and was desperate to go to school and learn to read. My parents were journalists and I grew up in a house filled with books, newspapers and magazines. If I didn’t work in a bookshop, I would still spend a lot of time (and money) in bookshops. Maybe it’s something to do with being born in the same year that Readings began?!

Best book you’ve…

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We chat with

What’s the strangest experience you’ve had in a bookshop?

I once helped a budding Charlie Chaplin impersonator find books about his hero. He was a young method actor looking to audition for a mime school in France. Our exchange generally consisted of me communicating with words and him responding through mime. He’d pirouette on his cane to agree with something, and strum his fake moustache when perturbed. It was a strange, beautiful language he was trying to…

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Amy Vuleta shares some of her favourite new releases from Australian authors, and tells us which Michael Chabon book inspired her to invest in a beehive!

Why do you work in books?

I’ve always loved to read, and when I was a teenager I realised that most of what I knew about the world – of history, geography, biology and human relationships – I had learned from reading stories. I’ve always sought knowledge of the world in fiction, which may…

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Marie Matteson chats about Virginia Woolf, gothic fiction in a contemporary setting, and the joy to be found in reading

Why do you work in books?

I feel I’ve been surrounded by books my whole life and it seems entirely natural to me that I would end up working among them. There’s a photo I have of the Christmas when I was five and I’m sitting on top of a copy of Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall…

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Lou Fulco admits to a love of foreign crime shows and gives advice on how to return a DVD with bite marks in it. (Be very angry…)

Why do you work in books?

I actually came to Readings as a music and DVD specialist. Readings was the place that I used to buy many of my books from prior to that, so the marriage was a bonus.

Name a book/film/album that has changed the way you think.

Every book I’ve…

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Emily Gale chats about time-slip novels, half-eaten kumquats and swooning over Morris Gleitzman.

Why do you work in books?

Books keep me sane (ish), but I have to remind myself that I fell into children’s books by chance. My first job as an editorial assistant was just one of many I applied for after uni, and 15 years down the line, it seems outlandish that I could have ended up doing something different. I’ve worked as an editor, a writer…

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We chat with George Munn about Cormac McCarthy’s stunning prose, customers sleeping in stores and anthropomorphised woodland creatures.

Why do you work in books?

I could say it’s because I love them (which is definitely the case), but honestly? It’s because my mum told me to. She sat me down when I was about 15 and explained that a bookshop is quite probably the best place to work. After eight years working in bookshops, I would have to agree with…

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We chat with Kara Nicholson about David Foster Wallace’s

Why do you work in books?

Books are my favourite objects and reading is my favourite pastime – seems only natural.

What are you reading now?

I’m reading the new biography of David Foster Wallace, Every Love Story is a Ghost Story by D.T. Max. I started it the day after I read an interview with Wallace where he said that ‘a big part of serious fiction’s purpose is to give…

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We chat with Selena Tan about what she’s reading right now, and why the smell of a new book is so tempting.

Why do you work in books?

I love the smell of books, and receiving stock is always potentially exciting. Like the time I discovered I Am Maru by mugumogu straight out of the box. Also, there is the possibility of meeting authors I admire. David Levithan is definitely my meet-the-author highlight of this year.

Working at the State…

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We chat with Chris Dite from Readings Carlton about

Why do you work in books?

It’s an opportunity to push your tastes onto other people. But more than that, the social capital is intense. I don’t think there’s any other retail job people actually envy you for. It’ll also be nice to look back on when I’m older and tell my grandkids (who won’t care), ‘I worked in a bookshop when everyone started to panic about the end of bookshops.’…

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