Mark's Say: June 2022
In the digital age, bookselling is often a rather thankless task; Jeff Bezos was able to use books as the springboard to create his empire because it was an industry run by smart, passionate people who’d invented ways to organise a complex system, making it ripe for an opportunistic player to use it to their advantage. Amazon cut a swathe through bookshops globally, but thanks to the booksellers who make careful selections and recommendations and create places where people can discover books and be inspired, many shops still survive. Two of my colleagues who have been shortlisted for this year’s Australian Booksellers Association Bookseller of the Year Awards epitomise those qualities, and I wanted to acknowledge their skill and dedication.
Desi Boardman became manager of our Hawthorn shop over 25 years ago; she’s overseen two renovations and one move, and built up that branch of Readings into oneof the best bookshops in Australia. It’s become a cultural and social hub for the area and amply demonstrates what great contributions bookshops make to a community. Desi came to Melbourne from Sri Lanka as a teenager and fell into bookselling, getting a job at the RMIT bookshop. She had a natural affinity for bookselling; she loved finding books and placing them in customers’ hands and was given more and more responsibility. Her next job was with us. Desi’s other great skill is in mentoring her colleagues and building a team. I feel very honoured to acknowledge her as a colleague.
Angela Crocombe came to Readings from a successful career in publishing. A passionate environmentalist, Angela is also the author of several books on the environment. As a bookseller she developed a passionate interest in children’s bookselling and publishing and when a shop adjacent to Readings Carlton became vacant, she urged us to open a dedicated children’s bookshop. It’s hard to resist Angela’s enthusiasm and she became the founding manager of Readings Kids, not only creating a wonderful space and collection of books but also thinking of ways to engage young people with books. Returning from a book conference in the US, she set up the Readings Teen Advisory Board, a forum where young adults could learn about the industry from authors and publishers and in return let them know what books and topics interested them. Desi has been nominated as Bookseller of the Year and Angela as Children’s Bookseller of the Year.
A few years ago, psychotherapists Sandra Neil and Bob Silverberg, together with artist Peter Trusler, came to me about a unique book project. Peter had begun therapy with Sandra in 1981, then later began seeing Bob. Peter is best known as an illustrator for scientific publications (he trained as a palaeontologist); his other work is done in a hyperrealist style he largely kept to himself. Sandra and Bob soon noticed that Peter’s private works reflected the struggles of his inner life – issues of control and anger. In their singular book, Thrice Told, Peter, Sandra and Bob write parallel narratives of their respective journeys through therapy and art. Accompanying the frank and revealing text are beautiful reproductions of Peter’s works, many of which have never been seen before. This a bold piece of publishing that is difficult to classify but eerily compelling. Thrice Told is out now and well worth a look.
