Galentine’s Day is a holiday that Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation character Leslie Knope invented that occurs every year on 13 February, the day before Valentine’s Day. Galentine’s Day is kind of like Valentine’s Day – but instead of celebrating ‘romantic’ love, you celebrate your love for your best girlfriends.

In anticipation of Galentine’s Day, our booksellers share stories of how books have played a role in their own friendships.

‘A dear friend of mine is a wonderful and generous cook. For years we have shared a love of cookbooks – favourites include Ruby Tandoh’s Flavour, Anna Jones’s A Modern Way to Eat, Hetty McKinnon’s Community and everything Nigel Slater has ever written. While I only flick through these books and imagine being better in the kitchen, Allyse reads recipes like most people read novels. She’s drawn to no-bullshit food that champions vegetables – simple food with complex flavour. Rather than directly following recipe instructions, she has the ability to take inspiration what she reads, come up wither own take and turn that into a feast for friends and family. Being fed by Allyse is always a special treat and I’m thrilled that she’s recently started sharing her recipes online.

We also both love reading fiction about food, and Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter is a recent favourite of ours. A must read for anyone who’s worked in hospitality, this brilliant coming-of-age story also features an intriguing female friendship. Highly recommended, you can read my review here.’ – Stella Charls, Events and Marketing Coordinator

‘This year marks the 20th year of friendship between me and my dearest friend Lex. We became friends in early high-school, bonding over our mutual love of reading and writing. Lex was a poet, and I wrote short stories, and we both kept diaries and wrote one another endless letters and notes. Our shared pop culture obsessions would come to encompass many things (Dawson’s Creek was crucial to our emotional development; we were so obsessed with the film Scream we bought the mask and incorporated it into our day-to-day wear). Lex introduced me to punk music, which I mostly pretended to like so she would think I was as cool as she was, and she dragged me along to music festivals. She was there for the music, I was there to meet boys.

We were both voracious readers, and one of the first things that drew us together was our love of Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn. We read every single book written by John Marsden, and his Tomorrow When The War Began series meant the world to us. When we were fifteen, Lex and I attended a three day writing camp at John Marsden’s property, and it was a transformative experience. I remember the two of us coming home from the camp – after days of discussing books and having our literary hero actually read and give us feedback on our writing – and we both felt exhilarated, inspired and ready to take on the world, together.’ – Nina Kenwood, marketing manager

‘When first I moved into a Brisbane sharehouse with three 'much-cooler-than-me’ people I barely knew, I was a little anxious. I’d always lived with people I knew before then so I really wasn’t sure what to expect. And back on that very first day, when we all met in a bar to discuss living arrangements, I never would never have imagined that eight years on, the two young women who were making me nervous about how I was dressed would go on to become two of my closest and dearest friends.

Our shared love for reading and writing was crucial to us forming a friendship. First, we began to swap book recommendations and our own writing with each another. It was in that house that I first fell in love with Helen Garner and Paul Kelly. Over the next few years, the three of us would start a literary journal together, as well as travel to literary festivals in places as far away as India. These days we still swap books and our own writing with each other, and I value their feedback more than most other people. I was thrilled when one of them became hooked on Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels after the books had meant so much to me.

I’m so happy to have these two friends in my life, and grateful for the circumstances and authors that brought us together.‘ – Bronte Coates, digital content coordinator

'When I first moved to Melbourne to do my graduate diploma at RMIT I found myself pretty isolated. I didn’t know anyone down here, and was having trouble making friends. I’d gotten a job working for a bookshop in the city, and I was also volunteering for the Melbourne Writer’s Festival. I’d somehow ended up with two tickets to a session with Isobelle Carmody – an author whose books I’d been devoted to since I was a teenager (and pictured here). I didn’t really have anyone to go with, but after chatting with a workmate about Carmody’s YA fantasy series and discovering that she was also a fan, I offered her the second ticket. She gave me a bit of gentle ribbing about how I was only asking her because I didn’t know anyone else in the city, but agreed to come along anyway. Over the course of the evening we discovered that we actually enjoyed each other’s company. That was over 14 years ago now, and I’m proud to say that fierce, funny, and loyal lady is still a close friend.’ – Lian Hingee, digital marketing manager

‘My Galentine is Sarah. Our friendship was not formed simply because we liked reading. Nor was it formed because it was convenient or because we share a similar politic frame although these were important elements. Our relationship is now decades old, but our bond is not soley based on time shared. Basically, we are together because we are ridiculous.

Our friendship has stood still in our fast moving lives because we laugh together. We laugh at ourselves and this requires enormous trust. We are cathartic for one another. Together our mirth makes us free.

The two of us have always loved the work of Charlotte Brontë. She seems to understand how silly situations can become. Her books have a sense of slapstick about them – a humour that she keeps contained to allow her anger and disappointment at the social standing of women to be heard. Her character’s pride and certainty always comes at a cost; Sarah and I are familiar with this outcome.

Early on in our shared lives, before we became mothers, we imagined that we may have daughters in our life. We thought we may name one Charlotte and the other Bronte. I guess we wanted to make an ode to women’s lives past and present. Silly really, although collectively we do have one Charlotte and three marvellous sons.

I think the story of our friendship would make a superb television series. The meaning of life would be there, for a faint glimmer, and then bang, gone before anyone realised, until later. I think many of us live like this way, but not all of us laugh at life, boldly and with gut wrenching noises.’ – Chris Gordon, events manager