Books By The Bay

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Posted 2013-03-18 by Lorraine A ⇒ follow

Book shops are becoming rarer these days. With the Internet stores taking over most of the book sales, it's hard to come across a great second-hand book shop.

Meet Leonid Kouvelis, a former English teacher with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Politics and Russian Literature; a passionate book collector from the time he was 17 years of age, with his first collection from Mr Sotheby's Book Shop.

Leonid started the book shop five years ago, when he became disillusioned by the educational department and quit. With his passion for books, he knew he could put his knowledge to good use and help educate others. Leonid's motto is "Reading is food for your brain".

As soon as I met Leonid, I could tell how genuinely interested he is about education and sharing his passion of books with the world.

Leonid has many books in his personal collection, and on occasions "lets them go, if a customer is really interested in the book".

"I hope they enjoy them, and really get something out of them," he said. "It's my community service".

Leonid book shop stocks 10,000 books on the shelves, with another 110,000 books in storage, which is sorted into categories for when a customer requests a specific book.

There are over eight million books published annually. Whilst it would be impossible to stock every book, Leonid has a huge collection of pre-loved books, with the majority being out of print or have had a limited print run, making them rare/scarce. All books are personally selected by Leonid and he is happy to search through his stock if you are after something in particular.

You will find there is something for everyone with books ranging from true crime, UFO's, children's literacy, philosophy, numerology, ghosts, poetry, military, history, gardening, fiction and the list goes on and on.

Most of the books in the store are priced below $10. There are some more expensive books behind the counter.

Leonid has also written articles for bookshop blog and is in the thought process of writing a book about the shop.

The shop is open Thursday to Sunday 10am-4pm and is conveniently located next door to Lilo Cafe on the Esplanade, Mornington, with Fisherman's Beach directly opposite.