Colourful window display and Big Issue seller, Avid Reader, West End
Constantly in the throes of re-invention and perpetual evolution, West End is an interesting suburb. Shops, restaurants and businesses come and go and it's comforting to know that
Avid Reader, a small, creative independent bookseller, remains a vibrant part of the West End community.
A trend-setter in all things books, the bookshop stocks a wide variety of both the latest books and iconic publications covering all genres of diverse and interesting reads.
My favourite Australian bookstore, Avid Reader hosts entertaining and enlightening author events and book launches. Through regular newsletters and online updates, readers are invited to get up close and personal with eminent and not-so-eminent authors and literary figures. Audience participation is invited and ABC Radio National journalist Paul Barclay regularly conducts and records live author interviews for broadcast in the Avid Reader showroom.
Avid hosts active, fun book clubs -
The Big Breakfast Bookclub is held on the first Sunday of the month where Australian authors are showcased and readers are invited to enjoy a 'leisurely Sunday morning of literary pleasure'.
Barrista Stuart Carrier runs the intimate cafe which is served by a light and airy courtyard. A quirky, weathered bookshelf sports tins and teapots planted with growing greenery; real leaf tea is served in colourful cosy-clad pots.
Where the Wild Things Are, next door to Avid, is 'a children's and young adult specialist bookshop'.
Staffed by passionate bibliophiles, many of them young and newly published authors, Avid is a reader's delight and a great West End institution.