Our latest blog posts

Gift ideas to match your child's obsession

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be compiling a host of gift guides to help you with your Christmas shopping.

Here are some bookish gift ideas for kids and tweens who have a passion for particular fandoms – from Pokémon to Marvel; from My Little Pony to Star Wars. We’ve even included one sneaky recommendation for teens…

For Minecraft fans…

The Official Minecraft Annual 2017

This annual is a celebration of all things Minecraft. Inside its pages, fans will find…

Read more ›

Our Christmas opening hours for 2016

Here are our trading hours for each of our seven shops during the Christmas and New Year period.

CARLTON

Monday 5 December – 8am - 11pm
Tuesday 6 December – 8am - 11pm
Wednesday 7 December – 8am - 11pm
Thursday 8 December – 8am - 11pm
Friday 9 December – 8am - 11pm
Saturday 10 December – 8am - 11pm
Sunday 11 December – 9am - 10pm
Monday 12 December – 8am - 11pm
Tuesday 13 December – 8am…

Read more ›

Our top ten bestsellers of the week

The Australian Dream: Blood, History and Becoming (Quarterly Essay 64) by Stan Grant

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

The Good People by Hannah Kent

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Neighbourhood by Hetty McKinnon

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape

Fight Like a Girl by Clementine Ford

Hope: An Anthology by various

Music and Freedom by Zoë Morrison

Please note: This list doesn’t include sales from our 12 Days of Christmas Special

Read more ›

Bestselling books at Breakthrough 2016

by Chris Gordon

Last weekend, Readings was fortunate be involved with the Breakthrough conference, which was hosted by the wonderful Victorian Women’s Trust (VWT) at the Melbourne Town Hall. This gathering’s aim was to bring together voices that support and celebrate gender equality. Over the two-day meet up, more than 100 different speakers shared their stories of working towards a manifesto based on respect and representation to an audience of nearly a thousand women. It was an uplifting experience.

Before I came…

Read more ›

What we're reading: Cece Bell, Marilyn Waring and Bill Bryson

Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on or the music we’re loving.

Lian Hingee is reading The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

Many years ago I spent a Gap Year working at a boarding school just outside of London. After I returned I discovered Bill Bryson’s Notes From a Small Island, which I snickered through with delighted familiarity. Bryson has a magnificent…

Read more ›

Anti-Christmas reads for grinches

If you’re already gritting your teeth in anticipation of the holiday cheer coming your way, we’ve compiled a list of violent, horrifying and disturbing books. We recommend you disappear inside of one of them until the post New Year’s hangover.

The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff

Few things dampen the festive spirit like a witch burning. Vividly capturing the atmosphere of seventeenth-century America, Stacy Schiff’s magisterial history draws readers into this anxious time in history and reveals details and…

Read more ›

A sweet DIY gift idea for Christmas

Hand-made Christmas gifts can be a fun and affordable way to survive the holiday season. This week, our staff tried their hands at making some ‘simple paper flowers’ with instructions from Kelsey Elam. Here’s a brief recap of our crafternoon.

WHY THIS BOOK…

We’ll be honest – we mainly decided to test 100 Simple Paper Flowers out as it promised to be simple – it’s in the title and everything. It also helps that it’s a beautiful book…

Read more ›

20 gifts under $20

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be compiling a host of gift guides to help you with your Christmas shopping.

Nutella Mug Cakes and More

Mug Cakes + Nutella = Irresistible. Nutella Mug Cakes and More features 30+ recipes for delicious Nutella-based desserts that require minimal effort and time.

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

With extraordinary honesty and magnetism, Lucia Berlin invites us into her rich, itinerant life: the drink and the mess and the pain and…

Read more ›

Costa book awards shortlists 2016

The Costa Book Awards honour some of the most outstanding books of the year written by authors based in the UK and Ireland. There are five categories - First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book - with one of the five winners chosen as Book of the Year.

Here are the shortlistees in each category.

Novel

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

The Gustav Sonata

Read more ›