The City of Melbourne is not just about the indulgent food, clearance outlets and delicious coffee, it also hosts a huge number of literary hubs and spaces dedicated to arts and culture. With so many new and used book stores around the place, it is a tough competition to be number one,
City Basement Books is in my humble opinion, the best secondhand bookstore in Melbourne's CBD.
Dive into a world of books!
This underground literary centre is located on Flinders Street.
City Basement Books' strength lies in the books! You may think this is an obvious statement, however, so many bookshops these days are branching out to selling books, plus a combination of stationeries, gifts and other non book items. This secondhand bookstore is simply that, with books of all sizes, shapes, languages, colours, subjects, conditions and eras.
Browse in comfort.
Although every item is classified and the shop itself is perfectly organised, it does resemble a book maze as countless tall shelves line the walls, isles and front desk. I recommend going to this shop when you are in browsing mood, as you will naturally drift from one section to the other and before you know it, 3 hours have gone by and you are still in there randomly checking out 80's microwave cookbooks!
For avid readers who sometimes have to choose between a loaf of bread or a new novel, here is a good piece of news - City Basement Books prices are extremely reasonable! This little gem also stocks some collector's items, rare and discontinued editions and of course, books in every language you could imagine!
All sorts of books
Their kids books section is a room itself, which id guaranteed to amuse the little ones for a while and bring some nostalgia to us adults when we come across an old bedtime stories or school nursery rhyme books.
So whatever your taste is, however big or small your budget is, you are guaranteed to find something at City Basement Books. All you need is your browsing cap on, a couple of hours and a love for the written word.
