Last year I heard about the Global Book Crawl kinda late, so I didn’t get to all the shops; this year I planned my attack meticulously and even managed to bring some friends along the way.

I know you don’t have to buy anything to get the stamp, but it’s nice to have a mission and support indie bookshops financially so I saved my book-buying for this period and started writing a list a couple of months ahead. I also had my nieces’ and nephews’ names written down because they can always do with a book gift.

Here’s how it went.

Monday 20 April: Inner West

At 8am I arrange for my Meetup group to have breakfast at Honey & Walnut, just two doors down from Gleebooks Dulwich Hill. Four of us make it there. After a quiche and a pot of honeydew green tea, I bring the group into the bookshop at 9am sharp. We pick up a passport and earn our first stamp. We must be among the first to start the crawl?

I didn’t make it to this one last year – in fact, it’s the first time I’ve been to this shop. The staff member there is very excited that we’re so keen and we take some snaps for the socials. It’s a small shop comfortingly stuffed with books and certainly stocks tomes in keeping with its Inner West locale.

We lose one crew member, who has to go to work.

Bought: Vanessa Berry’s Calendar (on the list)

We catch a bus to Enmore and, seeing as we’re a tea group, have a pit stop at Mamuki, a Japanese bakery with a fancy array of tea drinks. I have an expensive but delicious matcha cookie and hojicha cloud.

We walk to Better Read than Dead. It’s here that we start having deeper discussions about books and start making recommendations to each other as we browse. BRTD has a section for local local authors and so I allow myself to buy a poetry collection that I doubt I’ll find anywhere else.

Bought: Siang Lu’s The Whitewash (on the list); Paula Okaigun Becoming (spontaneous)

Another bus, this time to Gleebooks Glebe. This is a much bigger bookstore than the other two so we lose and find each other throughout our visit. As this shop has a secondhand section, I allow myself to buy two books.

Bought: Kae Tempest Divisible by Itself and One (spontaneous); Matt Thorne Prince (spontaneous, secondhand)

I have work in the afternoon so I leave one person there and walk another to a lunch spot on my way home.

Tuesday 21 April: North

My partners-in-crime are friends and colleagues of a sort. Mandy, who lives on the Northern Beaches, has agreed to be our driver and we head to Avalon, which is much further than you think it is.

We fuel up at Chillbar for brunch, then visit Bookoccino – so called because you can get coffee there. The shop has quite artistic lighting and the layout uses more negative space than you might imagine. The tables (for coffee-drinking) make browsing a little annoying, though. I don’t find anything on my list* but I do pick up a book that Mandy buys and Stephanie wants to read after.

(*Later, Stephanie tells me I missed a massive display of Nikita Gill Hekate, which goes to show you should also shelve books where they ought to be, in alphabetical order, even if they are on display.)

Bought: Belinda Murrell The Silver Sea (for a niece); Wanning Sun Maid in China (lucky dip touted as ‘media morality and the cultural politics of boundaries’)

To be honest the lucky dip is right up my alley and at the same time seems to be way off-piste in terms of the kind of book prevalent in the store.

Mandy takes the coastal road south and we stop at a lookout in Freshwater along the way. It’s a shame the weather is murky because that’s the time to be reading, not driving.

Three Sparrows in Mosman is once again too small to have anything niche on my list and I almost resign myself to reaching for one of the more popular titles I have up my sleeve, but then I find something adjacent, plus an Australian author I know my eldest niece likes.

Bought: Wild Guide: Sydney (spontaneous); Alicia Jasinska This Fatal Kiss (for a niece)

Pit stop at the pub for hot chips and a quick drink, and Mandy takes us to The Burns Bay Bookery in Lane Cove. Stephanie does her friendly American thing where she strikes up a conversation about spec fic with the shop assistant (who says it’s their favourite genre, at which point Stephanie asks if they write and then invites them to Sydney Speculative Scribes). At this point Stephanie introduces Mandy and I as part of the founding team and it turns out I already know Jessie, who is a SWF supervisor this year. Small world? It’s books and books, people.

Julio, who I met for the Inner West portion, lives close by and pops in to say “hello”.

BBB was not on the crawl last year, so I’ll describe it a little: quite a deep shop with lots of aisles and sections for each genre amusingly described (spec fic is, for e.g., ‘Zombies & Robots’). The lighting is probably too cold for a bookstore – it feels like it used to be an office – but there’s quite a wide-ranging selection of books. Stephanie and Mandy both end up buying book-adjacent merch (mugs).

Bought: Shannon Best Indigenous Rules of Engagement (spontaneous); qntm There is no Antimemetics Division (on the list)

Mandy needs to get home so Stephanie and I hustle onto a bus, which means we fail to take a photo of the store and our passport. Stephanie also heads home and leaves me to get to her local, Constant Reader, on my own. Jay’s not in (I want to talk to him about author tours) but I find something else I was looking for.

Bought: Toby Walsh The Shortest History of AI (on the list); Daniel Lavery Dear Prudence (spontaneous, from the discount table) (I have already finished reading this book)

A quick trip on the metro to Chatswood and the new Kinokuniya. It’s much smaller than the CBD one but its wooded aesthetic makes it look warmer and calmer.

Bought: Soryo Matsumura An Illustrated Guide to the Zen Tea Ceremony

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Wednesday 22 April: Rest day

(As if… I have two medical appointments, half a day of work and then a Scribes write-in.)

(On the upside, I reach my Opal weekly cap, which means travel for the rest of the week is free.)

Thursday 23 April: Balmain

I think it’s beautiful that Hill of Content and Roaring Stories not only co-exist in the same suburb but practically opposite each other. I start with HoC, because that’s where the bus drops me off. Last year I considered this the bookshop I was most compatible with, but this year I can’t seem to find any of the more niche books I want. It’s still a nicely set out store and immediately feels very friendly to me.

Bought: RF Kuang Katabasis (on the list)

I have breakfast at Berlin Bakr a few doors up the street, where the tea comes loose-leaf in a wide flat cast iron teapot, then go to RS.

Bought: Mariana Enriquez A Sunny Place for Shady People (spontaneous); Maiya Ibrahim Serpent Sea (on the list)

Unfortunately, two of the three books I bought are quite hefty and I have to carry them around White Bay Power Station, where I pay a brief visit to the Biennale of Sydney. Then I head back home for half a day of work.

I have book club in the evening – this one is for books in translation – and we decide Nelio Biedermann Lazar is our next meeting’s book.

Friday 24 April: East

In an echo of 2025, I start at Gertrude & Alice Bondi Beach and work my way west on this leg. We lost The Bookshop Darlinghurst (RIP) but we gained Woollahra Bookshop, so the journey is roughly the same.

I get to G&A just after 9am and find Lazar almost immediately. I do a more cursory browse than intended, partly because it’s a stunning day at the beach and the bookshop feels like the wrong place to be, and partly because the place is crowded with people having coffee in fitness gear and I feel wildly out of place.

Bought: Nelio Biedermann Lazar (bought before being added to the list)

I admire the sunny beach for several minutes, then board a bus to Woollahra. I have lived in Sydney all my life and have never been to this part of Woollahra – this I tell a pair of booksellers (Michael Eyes and Gordon Elliott) when I step into the shop.

In keeping with the village theme of the area, it’s a small shop with a tight edit of books. I feel a lot of simpatico as several are ones I already own and/or have enjoyed. I find a book by a UK writer I follow on Bluesky but whose books are incredibly hard to find in Australia (such that I didn’t even think to put it on my list) and I’m stoked.

Michael is also incredibly kind – he discovers I don’t care for the audiobook freebie on offer and instead gives me the bonus family book (Andy Griffiths The Land of Lost Things), which I’ll save for a niece.

Bought: Tom Cox Everything Will Swallow You (spontaneous)

I ask for a teatime rec and am directed to Zey, where I have a too-milky chai. Should’ve gone for the Turkish tea.

I head to Ariel on foot. It’s about a kilometre and takes me from the quiet village to the main Oxford Street drag. (By the by, I have never seen so much dog poop on the pavement as I did in Woollahra. What’s that about?)

Ariel still has its designer edge and I’m out of my element as I can’t find any of my niche titles, nor the mainstream ones. Instead I find a compromise.

Bought: Belinda Castles Walking Sydney (spontaneous)

I’ve planned to meet my tea group at Potts Point Bookshop at noon, to be followed by tea at Ms.Cattea. I calculate I have 45 minutes to travel the 3km from Ariel so I do it, even though I realise I haven’t eaten anything since brekky at 7am. (Spoiler: I survive.)

Six of us make it to the bookshop. There’s a table at the back of seemingly random books and I immediately find Diving Into Glass, the memoir of Caro Llewellyn. Real ones will know she was the reason I started volunteering for the Sydney Writers’ Festival in 2005 and am now the longest-serving member of its volunteer force. It turns out this table is discounted so I decide to buy the book.

I become increasingly desperate to stick to the remaining few books on my list so, for the first time, I ask the booksellers if they have any of the titles. I get about four requests in before one of them (maybe flustered or annoyed they don’t stock these) asks “where are you getting these books?!” Mate, many were word-of-mouth recommendations from writer friends. Instead I take a bookseller rec for the first time based on his understanding that I like SFF.

Bought: Caro Llewellyn Diving Into Glass (spontaneous); John Morrissey Bird Deity (recommended)

We head to the tea shop where Stephanie meets us, having had a disastrous morning – she has misplaced her passport but she is proudly toting her tote bag.

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Saturday 25 April: Anzac Day

No book shopping today, but I did have a Taiwanese tea-tasting session at Stephanie’s friend’s place and then a couple of drinks at the Ho-Ji pop-up.

Sunday 26 April: Sydney CBD

Today I combine two of my Meetups – tea and speculative fiction – so there are more people to lose in bigger bookshops. We start at Abbey’s, which is just a front for Galaxy. I find Kathleen Jennings Honeyeater for the first time and am ecstatic.

Amelia is on the opening shift – she’s not volunteering at SWF this year but we have a chat until it gets busy.

Bought: Kathleen Jennings Honeyeater (on the list)

We head to The Palace Tearoom in the QVB across the road. I have a booking, but I made it before I knew how many people were actually coming. “Hi, I booked for four people but I sort of have 12 who followed me from a bookshop.” The server is cheerful about it and sends us to a set of booths several metres away from the venue where we can happily chat loudly as a large group. Untangling the bill is a bit of a nightmare but we get there in the end.

Onward to Kinokuniya in The Galeries. It is heaving so I tell everyone to go browse and be merry and if they want to say a final goodbye to meet me outside in an hour. I head to the Food & Beverage section where I buy most of my tea reference books but it is woefully understocked today so I head to Sci-Fi & Fantasy and Young Adult to see if I can acquire the last books on my list. I end up with three impulse buys instead.

Bought: Bora Chung Cursed Bunny and The Midnight Timetable (spontaneous); Amal El-Mohtar The River has Roots (spontaneous)

And that’s it! Sixteen bookshops**, 26 books, 12 Penguin Personas and one freebie Andy Griffiths book later, I earn the final stamp (well, sticker) on my passport. There’s a special comp you can enter at this stage, though the thought of more books makes me feel slightly bamboozled. Like, where the hell am I going to a) find the time to read them; and b) find the room to house them?

Apparently I’ve also been Instagramming wrongly and have forgotten to tag @global.bookcrawl.australia in yet another comp to win a completely different set of books. I’m less sad about this then you might guess, but I add them retrospectively anyway.

See you next year?

(**I was incredibly pleased with this achievement until I learnt that Melbourne has 39 bookshops on its passport and that people there had done them all.)

Way back in April I read an article in Broadsheet about the Global Book Crawl, an event promoting indie bookstores, and very quickly decided I would do my best to visit as many as I could in the time that I had – and I threw in an accompanying visit to a nearby tea shop as an incentive.

While I did have a list of books I’d been meaning to get, plus four niblings to buy gifts for (I am Book Aunty), I was also happy to be led by the shops’ selections and displays.

Here’s what happened.

Monday 21 April

This was a public holiday (Easter Monday) and not all the stores were open, and many had reduced hours so I decided to start in Newtown and walk into the city via Glebe as all those bookshops along the route seemed to be accessible.

STOP 1) Obtained my passport and got my first stamp at Better Read than Dead in Newtown. I used to visit the store more often when I lived in Summer Hill (ie the inner west) and went to a lot of the author events. They have a decent selection of popular titles but also, given the location, you can expect a lot of progressive material as well.

Bought: The Nightmare Sequence by Omar Sakr (have all of his poetry collections to date) and Mr Blank by Dean Manning (long-time fan of his ’90s-’00s band Leonardo’s Bride).

Tea break: Rising Sun Workshop. It’s a motorcycle garage and ramen restaurant but it also serves T Totaler tea so I had a pot of the Rising Sun blend and a plate of gyoza and since it was a public holiday, it was 15% extra (ouch).

STOP 2) Walked the 2km to Gleebooks in Glebe. They actually had both the Glebe and Dulwich Hill stores on the list but I felt it was cheeky of them to have two bites of the cherry. Also, I knew Sydney Writers’ Festival was coming up and as they are the main bookstore, I figured I would buy more come May (no lies detected). This is quite a large store spread deep and over a couple of levels plus a mezzanine. Upstairs there’s a substantial art book section.

Bought: Orbital by Samantha Harvey (a spec-lit novella with long reserve queues at the library) and The Burrow by Melanie Cheng (ostensibly for book club, but it was a session I couldn’t actually go to).

Tea break: No tea break as I was still full from gyoza, but Gleebooks does have its own cafe! I tried to go to Bruce en route to the city but it was closed due to the public holiday.

STOP 3) Abbey’s in the city I go to occasionally – or, more accurately, I go through Abbey’s to get to Galaxy, which is its speculative fiction specialty store upstairs. I’ve also bought language books from the dedicated language section, which gives you a flavour of what it offers. It’s quite crammed and eclectic but surprisingly easy to find the kinds of books you want to browse. My Sydney Writers’ Festival volunteer colleague Amelia stamped my passport. I didn’t even know she worked there.

Bought: Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim (tea-adjunct book recommended by a writer friend who used to work at Hachette) and Alice by Christina Henry (because I love Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its spinoffs).

Tea break: The Palace Tea Room. In my opinion better than The Tea Room QVB upstairs; though the setting is not as grand, it’s still a beautifully appointed room and the scones are terrific. They serve Harney & Sons tea.

STOP 4) Kinokuniya in the Galeries Victoria is probably the bookstore I go to the most because it’s fucking enormous and it’s so conveniently located. I’m actually surprised it got counted as an indie bookstore given that it’s an international chain. I used to have a membership there because the only books I allowed myself to buy were tea books and they had a sizeable tea book selection but since the new tea books dried up, I haven’t renewed it. Still, they have a decent spec fic selection and probably the most comprehensive Australian poetry area that I know of. Also, if you like graphic novels, eat your heart out.

Bought: Ghost Cities by Siang Lu (TWO book clubs chose this book) and The Girl With No Reflection by Keshe Chow (for my 16yo niece because I failed to get her a ticket to the romantasy session at the Sydney Writers’ Festival).

Tea break: Dulcet is located in Kinokuniya and leans ‘Japanese dessert cafe’ so I had a matcha soft serve and a hojicha latte.

Tuesday 22 April

I went on a day retreat. It was a bit of a shemozzle (but I did get some relaxing done?) and its location meant I couldn’t get to any bookstores.

Wednesday 23 April

Had a work shift scheduled for 11am in Chatswood so I decided to tackle the north shore.

STOP 5) I’d never been to, nor heard of, Three Sparrows in Mosman. It’s a tiny bookstore that seems to cater to a fairly narrow demographic. It had some very pretty books and an okay kids section but nothing that appealed to me from a studied browse.

Bought: Pocket Pickler by Alex Elliott-Howery (resorted to the only recipe book on my list – for a friend – because I couldn’t find anything I wanted).

Tea break: Had breakfast at August the Old Place up the road but the tea was disappointing so I’m not going to link to it.

STOP 6) Dashed from Chatswood to Constant Reader in Crows Nest (thank you, metro!) on my lunch break. There are two Constant Reader stores next to each other: one is dedicated to kids books, the other to everything else. I actually ended up in the kids one first by accident.

Bought: Unhallowed Halls by Lili Wilkinson (for the 16yo niece again) and Theory of Everything by Yumna Kassab (an acquaintance whose eclectic interests make her books a serendipity of ideas).

Tea break: No tea break, had to get back to work asap.

Thursday 24 April

Worked from home, and then went straight to the theatre to see Hadestown, so not even a chance to visit a bookstore open late.

Friday 25 April

In addition to being yet another public holiday (Anzac Day), I had also scheduled a bushwalk with my walking group. No bookstores visited today.

Saturday 26 April

Many who know me might recall that I never venture east unless I have to. Nothing for it, though – four easily accessed indie bookstores to crawl in half a day.

STOP 7) Gertrude & Alice near Bondi Beach is a strange one to have on the list because it sells both new and secondhand books. It’s crammed full of a bit of everything more or less ordered by genre, though you have to dig if you want something specific. It also has its own cafe, which seemed to be more popular than the book part of the store.

Bought: The Scent of Flowers at Night by Leila Slimani (read The Country of Others and Watch Us Dance recently and found her an interesting writer) and Peripathetic by Cher Tan (have always enjoyed her essays).

Tea break: Gertrude & Alice’s signature chai, which was a bit too milky for my liking to be honest.

STOP 8) Took a bus to Paddington and visited Ariel, which I hadn’t been to for literal decades. It’s quite arty and a tad intellectual. I also scored some merch!!! They stamped my passport and gave me a Global Book Crawl tote bag, which I hadn’t been offered before despite spending money everywhere.

Bought: Fake News by Chris Stokel-Walker (a must for a former media student) and Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (borrowed this from the library after a recommendation by a friend and it was very good and now I’m buying a copy for everyone else).

Tea break: Matcha latte and vanilla slice at Chez Alex.

STOP 9) Walked to The Bookshop Darlinghurst. I don’t think I’d ever been inside, though it looked familiar from the outside. It is very queer! Get your queer books here! The bookseller was also super friendly.

Bought: Euphoria Kids by Alison Evans (Alison runs one of the four book clubs I attend and I meant to get this one ages ago), The Victoria Principle by Michael Farrell (genuine bookstore promo sell: sounded interesting) and Someone Like Me edited by Jo Case and Clem Bastow (I follow both these writers on socials and found out about the book there).

Tea break: No tea break, still fuelled by the matcha latte.

STOP 10) And finally I get to a neighbourhood I know better: Potts Point. The Potts Point Bookshop is deeper into the neighbourhood than Ms.Cattea Tea Bar, my usual haunt in this suburb, but I wanted to end the day with tea so off I trekked to the bookstore first. It’s on the smaller side of the bookshops I’ve seen and everything is quite tight. There seemed to be a sizeable architecture/interior design selection and a number of foodie-leaning shelves.

Bought: We Could Be Something by Will Kostakis (generally enjoy his books, didn’t realise this was out).

Tea break: A proper brew at Ms.Cattea Tea Bar. Cathy was in Japan at the time and Roger was doing his best to satisfy a thirsty Saturday arvo crowd (and dealing admirably). I had a ginger flower dancong and rested my weary feet.

Sunday 27 April

I already had an engagement on Sunday but fortunately it was in Balmain so I was able to fold in a visit to the two bookshops in the area before it.

STOP 11) Hill of Content seemed sprawling on the inside but there was order to the madness and I picked up a few of the more stubborn items on my list that I hadn’t been able to get elsewhere. Of all the bookshops, this one was probably the most “me”. I’m still not entirely sure if it’s Hill of Content (satisfaction) or Hill of Content (informational material).

Bought: Julia by Sandra Newman (1984 told from her point of view), Heist by Joel McKerrow (Sydney Writers’ Festival author – autograph hunting for my 9yo niece), Human/Nature by Jane Rawson (love her work) and Liar’s Test by Ambelin Kwaymullina (haven’t decided whether to keep this or give to niece).

STOP 12) I did a profile on Roaring Stories when it changed hands a couple of years ago (for 2041 ie Neighbourhood Media) so it was nice to see the store in the flesh. It’s a neat space, very cleanly delineated and well-lit so it was a pleasure to walk around in.

Bought: We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord by Garth Nix (one for the 8yo niece), Cold Truth by Ashley Kalagian-Blunt (another acquaintance with another new book out), Want collected by Gillian Anderson (genuine bookstore promo pickup), Roll of the Dice: Enchanted Forest by Lauren De Graaf (this one for the 5yo nephew as I’m not sure what his reading tastes are yet).

Tea break: Hosted two epic gongfu sessions at Cha is Tea, a secret tearoom above the Balmain Chinese Herbal Centre.

I’m sad I didn’t get to Umina Beach Book Nook. If I hadn’t gone to the retreat on Tuesday, I would’ve made a day of going up there because I love visiting the op shops around Woy Woy and Gosford. Bookoccino in Avalon was similarly difficult to wangle without supporting reasons for going that far deep into the northern beaches. Maybe a hike? Next year I hope I’ll have more advanced notice so I can plan better and bring some friends along.