Dear friends of Readings,

Like all Melbournians we found the recent announcement of a six-week lockdown terribly disappointing but the speed with which the virus can spread makes the decision completely understandable.

In the interests of public health and safety we’ll be closing most of our shops to public browsing from tomorrow. We do think books and music are pretty important to our well-bei…

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Sixteen-year-old Santee lives on the wrong side of town, and it seems no good can come from mentioning her dad, but, even so, she believes in the safety of her world – that running late for curfew will only mean being grounded, and that the government is working for the good of t…

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You might recall that in my last column I contemplated what the impact of the escalating COVID-19 crisis might be and grappled with how we would cope. As we went into lockdown, I was going to read Middlemarch and hoped that some of you might go on a similar journey. Our shops might have been closed but, wonderfully, many of you shifted to buying from us online. It was so heartening, but the numbe…

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If you feel like your head will explode if you hear the phrases ‘unprecedented times’ or ‘new normal’ again, then you are in the right place. Welcome to an experience that will take you back to a more comfortable era, delivering a familiar kind of ‘old normal’ that should bring you some feeling of nostalgic relief: perusing an excellent edition of the Readings Monthly. This month’s issue is overf…

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I’ve just read The Coal Curse, the new Quarterly Essay from Judith Brett. This is a terrific analysis of Australia’s post war economy and of the …

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