Back to Booktown
May 5th, 2008

I’d been trapped at home for three days by a combination of rain, a sick boyfriend and my own inherent laziness. So perhaps that’s why, as our car motored along the Western Highway from Melbourne to Clunes, I started singing. “We’re going to Booktown!” “All aboard the Booktown Express!” “You can always go - to Booktown”.
I wasn’t the only one to jump out the car with alacrity and gulp the crisp autumnal air of Clunes, a small town near Ballarat surrounded by low, golden hills. The residents of Clunes came up with the idea of Booktown last year as a way of combating the dip in the town’s fortunes following the drift of industry, business and residents to the city. This year it was a two day event with music, author talks, sausage sizzles and over fifty second-hand book dealers set up in various historic locations across the town. The atmosphere was great, the locals were really friendly, and I loved wandering around the glamorous gold-era buildings.
The books themselves were a bit underwhelming: at least a quarter of those fifty stalls were military history, and the rest seemed divided between needlecraft manuals, local memoirs and Bryce Courtenay. These books weren’t even kitsch enough to be cool - except for one I found on the history of beer can collecting. I still managed to accumulate an even dozen of books, mostly from $2 bins: Joyce Carol Oates, Elizabeth Jolley, Shirley Hazzard, a first edition George Johnston (yes - still $2),and some other stuff I’ve forgotten already. I’m not sure I even intend to read some of these. But it was such fun! I’m going to Booktown again next year - perhaps on Saturday morning instead of Sunday afternoon, but still singing all the way.
















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