Ry, manager of Reverie Booksellers

1:04 PM, 20 December 2023

I’m Ry, the manager of Reverie Booksellers. Our little shop was established in 1977 by my grandfather Thady. The shop was nestled in between an old cinema and post office on Edgeware Road, before moving across the street in the late 1980’s to what was the St Alban’s Medical Centre. My mother Deb’s took over from Thady for the following 35 years, and in that time the shop was known as Edgeware Paperback Centre.

2 ½ years ago (in the middle of lockdowns), my partner Angela and I took over from Debs who retired, the family business is now in its third generation.

Ang is a ‘booklover’ and an avid reader. She will read anything but particularly loves Fantasy, Paranormal and YA fiction. Ang had worked for Dymocks Booksellers in Australia and is now an HR Manager so is mostly behind the scenes, but constantly taking books home to add to her ‘to be read pile’. I love books, but also write screenplays and paint abstract art in my spare time (anything creative).

We gave the shop a new name, as well as a full renovation as the shelving was all the original from 1980’s when trade paperbacks weren’t common. We then went online with a dedicated website and online shop. We are happy to be able to assist customers from all over the country and have secondhand books sent straight to their doorstep. About 50% of our online orders come from rural areas, or those that live out of town, so being able to buy secondhand books online is a great solution for those that can’t get to towns or cities for their book shopping and don’t want to spend a lot.

We often get compliments from customers on how neat, tidy, and well laid out the shop is these days. Our customers have said they find browsing through our shelves a pleasure, and often people can lose track of time here. We have 3 rooms and a hallway, packed with books. We have all genres of fiction, a dedicated non-fiction room with a large range of subjects and topics, and a dedicated children and young adult room.

We have close to 13,000 books on the website, but there is more in store.

Our customers are true ‘booklovers’ that love to come in and browse, hunting for a particular book or are surprised and happy to find something they weren’t expecting. While there are E-Books and E-Readers, many of our customers mention that they prefer the tactile feel of a real book, turning the pages, and the special smell of a book that has history to it… and we agree, you just cannot beat a real book!