It was a huge year for our little traveling bookshop! We went from the city streets (Melbourne) to the country (Wye River), attending festivals (Clunes Booktown Festival) and markets (Fitzroy Mills) and delivering books to your doorsteps.
I get so much pleasure from finding new homes for books that I know readers will treasure. It is a practical way to combine my environmental activism with my passion for Australian literature and reading. It’s been lovely to find other people who are as enthusiastic about our project as we are, and who continue to buy books and champion our shop.
Here’s a little video with a roundup of our achievements this year.
We’re often asked when and where our mobile bookshop will be heading next. If you’re keen to keep track, the best way is to follow me on Instagram as this is where we announce our comings and goings.
We are about to do a few months of regular attendance in Fitzroy, for those Melbourne folks who have been looking forward to catching us in person. This August and September we’re in iconic Rose Street, Fitzroy. Come say hi!
We took the cutest little mobile bookstore in town to Clunes Booktown Festival last weekend and it was epic.
We sold over half our stock, met tonnes of lovely booklovers, authors and booksellers. What a terrific event the team at Creative Clunes put together.
Books barely made it onto the shelves before they were snapped up, with Australian books being by far the most popular. It was so exciting to see the enthusiasm for terrific local writers’ work.
On the Road Books will plan to return in 2024 with more Australian books and an increased focus on books for young people.
The only thing better than getting books in the mail is getting surprise books in the mail.
Our Bookmail service puts all my years working in bookstores, libraries, literary events, writing organisations and obsessively reading to work finding the ideal books to add to your TBR or that of a loved one.
Each month we curate a selection of books based on a short survey that you (or your gift recipient) fill in and send excellent-quality secondhand books to your door.
Select a one-off delivery, or pick one of our subscription packages.
This service is the perfect way to break out of a reading rut, discover new authors or books, and have a word-nerd use your survey results to introduce you to something a little out of the ordinary.
Head over to our Bookmail subscription page to purchase yours today.
Mobile bookstore On the Road Books on its first outing at a Melbourne market
I’ve been a lover of books since I could listen to them on my Fisher Price tape deck as a child. I’ve also been lucky enough to work with books, literature and writing in Australia for a long time and I have such deep respect for what it takes to get a book published and into the hands of readers.
Not long ago it came to my attention that some (not all!) op shops get so many donated books that every so often they just clear the shelves and throw all the books into the bin. To say I was horrified is not hyperbole. It’s true that many op shops are clogged with enough Clive Cussler books to build a structural wall, but hidden in these shelves are also amazing books, many written by Australian authors, that have lots of life left in them.
Enter On the Road Books. I’m saving great books that are languishing on op shop shelves and curating the best of these to be sold online and on this cute-as-a-button mobile bookstore.
It is my hope that this venture will find new homes for secondhand books which may otherwise languish unappreciated on op-shop shelves or (horror of all horrors) end up in landfill. None of us have the space to keep all the books we read, no matter how much we love them. Ending up in an op shop is not an indication of a book’s worth and there are so many amazing books available.
With a curated collection of high-quality titles on offer, On the Road Books gives great literature another round of life in readers’ hands.
I’m incredibly proud to be included in this anthology published today by Black Inc. which gathers together stories from disabled parents from Australia. My chapter reflects on how my feminism and disability politics have informed my parenting and vice versa. Spoiler alert: they’re impossible to extricate from each other!
Whether you’re a parent, a person with a disability or have a disabled parent or parent-to-be in your life, this collection is a terrific way to learn about the resilience and tenacity of our community.
You can purchase the book at your local independent bookstore or here online.
How does a father who is blind take his child to the park? How is a mother with dwarfism treated when she walks her child down the street? How do Deaf parents know when their baby cries in the night?
When writer and musician Eliza Hull was pregnant with her first child, like most parents-to-be she was a mix of excited and nervous. But as a person with a disability, there were added complexities. She wondered: Will the pregnancy be too hard? Will people judge me? Will I cope with the demands of parenting? More than 15 per cent of Australian households have a parent with a disability, yet their stories are rarely shared, their experiences almost never reflected in parenting literature.
In We’ve Got This, twenty-five parents who identify as Deaf, disabled or chronically ill discuss the highs and lows of their parenting journeys and reveal that the greatest obstacles lie in other people’s attitudes. The result is a moving, revelatory and empowering anthology. As Rebekah Taussig writes, ‘Parenthood can tangle with grief and loss. Disability can include joy and abundance. And goddammit – disabled parents exist.’
Contributors include Jacinta Parsons, Kristy Forbes, Graeme Innes AM, Jessica Smith OAM, Jax Jacki Brown OAM, Nicole Lee, Elly May Barnes, Neangok Chair, Renay Barker-Mulholland, Micheline Lee and Shakira Hussein. We’ve Got This will appeal to readers of Growing Up Disabled in Australia and other titles in the Growing Up series.
‘Full of deep, beautiful, important stories. I’ve learnt so much from this book.’—Clare Bowditch, musician, actress and radio presenter
Here she is, in all her glory, the 2013 edition of The Emerging Writer. Isn’t she pretty? I’m excited to have a chapter published in the book this year, talking about how vital community is to emerging writers and why it should be the focus of our energy rather than networking.
It’s a pleasure to be featured in the book, especially alongside such talent as Penni Russon, Alice Pung, Shaun Tan and Zoe Dattner.
You can learn more about The Emerging Writer, including where to find a copy to make your very own , at the Emerging Writers’ Festival website. Even better, come along to the launch on Thursday 30 May at the Fitzroy Town Hall. Bookings here.
