The start of a new month means that there's a new issue of Readings Monthly available online and in our shops. Below you can read the foreword from the latest issue – and keep an eye on the blog for more updates and recommended new releases throughout the month!
As I write this, we are one week away from opening our newest Readings shop, in Chadstone. I’ve been thinking a lot about the process of opening a bookshop and what makes a bookshop special. People might disagree with me, but I think the look and feel of a bookshop is very important. For Chadstone, we asked local architecture firm Kerstin Thompson Architects to design the space. As well as designing beautiful spaces, they like to champion local and sustainable. The shop will feature local, reclaimed bluestone and furniture designed and built here in Melbourne. The shop will also feature a 20-metre-long lantern by local artist Edward Linacre, which is made from books that were misprinted and destined to be pulped. Now, they will find a permanent home in our new bookshop.
As well as having the right look and feel, the space must be functional. We spend a lot of time thinking about how people will move through the shop and where we will place different book categories. Should the Health section sit next to the Parenting section? Where do we put Mythology? And the question we can never seem to work out a definitive answer to: where exactly should we put True Crime? One thing we always do, though, is put Australian Fiction and Australian Studies towards the front of the shop, so they are impossible to miss.
We spend a lot of time curating the range of books, which is a long, involved and illuminating process. We never know which categories are going to work in a new shop, but we like to make sure every category is well stocked and has a chance to be successful. Part of the fun of opening a bookshop in a new area is seeing what books the customers want to buy and adapting the range to suit. When we opened our shop in Emporium, we never imagined how well translated works of fiction would sell there. One Japanese novel, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, has sold over 4,500 copies there to date.
Of course, one of the most crucial elements of the bookshop is the bookseller. Without good booksellers, the shop will have no soul. We have, I think, a terrific team of booksellers at Chadstone. Some are new to Readings, and some have moved across from our other shops. And, finally, the most important element is the customer. We need customers not only to keep us in business, but also for the life and vitality they bring to the shop, which helps to form its identity.
