Joe Rubbo has worked on and off at Readings over the past 13 years, and is the son of our managing director, Mark Rubbo. The former manager at Readings Doncaster, he now manages our Carlton shop. Here, we chat with Joe about his favourite recent reads, and what happens in bookshops between 9pm and 11pm.

Why did you decide to work in books?

I started out at the Hawthorn shop, a part-time job while studying Arts. I always thought that working at Readings wouldn’t be my career, but it’s something I’ve started to embrace over the last few years. Growing up, I spent quite a bit of time hanging out at the various stores on Lygon Street – I have memories of running around the old terrace store that was demolished to make way for Lygon Court. Dad devoted so much time to Readings that the shop felt like a fifth sibling. It also helps that I love books and reading.

What is your favourite part of your job?

I get to talk about art and writing with smart, interesting, funny, compassionate people every working day. What could be better than that?

What is the weirdest thing to happen to you in a bookshop?

I used to work Saturday nights at Carlton and some pretty weird things would happen between 9 and 11pm. My cousin visited recently from the U.S. and I took him in to the shop one Saturday evening and he thought it seemed more like a club than a bookshop. I’ve chased shoplifters down the street and even ejected a flasher from the store. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t come in on a Saturday, you should!

What’s the best book you’ve read lately and why?

I loved Insomniac City by Bill Hayes. It’s a beautiful rendering of the writer’s relationship with the wildly interesting Oliver Sacks. Hayes’s intimate portrait of Sacks is a true gift. It’s funny, sad, poignant and joyous. I also liked Trick by Domenico Starnone, the rumoured husband of Elena Ferrante. I was obsessed with the Neapolitan series, so I was interested to try this when I came across it in the store. There are some definite similarities between Trick and Ferrante’s work. The narrator is an artist whose talent saved him from Naples violent streets, definitely worth a look if you’re a Ferrante fan.

Describe your taste in books.

I try to read as widely as possible, so I can help customers with recommendations. But I definitely read more literary fiction than anything else. The critic James Wood sums up the importance of the novels and reading them better than me: ‘Literature makes us better noticers of life; we get to practice on life itself; which in turn makes us better readers of detail in literature; which in turn makes us better readers of life.’ Wood has a novel out soon (Upstate) which I’m looking forward to reading.

What books are sitting on your bedside table right now?

The Nowhere Child by Melbourne writer, Christan White. The team at Affirm Press are extremely excited about this debut, which will be arriving at bookshops in late June. Lots of my colleagues have read it and loved it. It’s a crime novel set between Melbourne and the U.S. I also have a copy of Only Killers and Thieves, a western set in 1800s Queensland, written by an Englishman.