Amanda Rayner is a bookseller and returns officer at our Carlton bookshop. Here, she shares what books are on her TBR pile, her most formative read and which fictional world she’d choose to be trapped in.

What is your favourite part of your job?

I love working in an industry where your knowledge expands every day, but there is always more to learn. I’ve met some of my closest friends while working in books; not surprisingly, it’s a good place to meet people with similar interests to your own.

What is the hardest question a customer has asked you in the bookshop?

I was once asked if we had a book to help lift a curse.

Describe your taste in books.

I like to spend time in both the real world and the fictitious world. Books on Tudor history, as well as society and culture titles feature heavily in my non-fiction reading. My fiction tastes are a little broader; I have what I feel is a realistic list of the classics that I am working through, and I always like to keep in touch with what is currently being released (including the odd crime novel). My real love however is 20th-century literature – there is still so much to explore there.

Why did you decide to work in books?

Books have always been a source of comfort, amusement and knowledge for me – I’ve been told that when I was younger I used to fall asleep with a book in my hand. That combined with some enthusiastic English teachers and school librarians meant that sooner or later I was going to end up working with books.

Tell us about a book that changed the way you think.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I read it as I was making some significant life choices, and I still remember where I was when I read specific sections of that book. Gandalf’s quote, ‘All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us’, is a life motto. I also think that if everyone were like Samwise Gamgee, the world would be a better place.

If you were cursed to be trapped inside the world of a book, which one would you pick – and why?

It would definitely be the Milly Molly Mandy stories. Joyce Lankester Brisley includes a map in the front of each of her books, so I’d have a solid head start as to where everything is. Life there also seems to be fairly incident-free (although I may have to help rethatch the odd roof), and food appears to be an important pastime.

What books are sitting on your bedside table right now?

I have the honour of being on the judging panel for the 2019 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, so that has its own special pile. The older I get, the more I love Australian writing.

I’m also hoping to get a chance soon to read my copy of I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid as I loved his other book Foe. Also on the pile is Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee, which has been recommended by so many colleagues and friends.