The best bookshops in Melbourne

Though the Readings empire stretches to St Kilda and the State Library of Victoria, it's the Lygon Street store that holds the hearts and minds of Melbourne's diehard bookworms. Readings opened its original doors as a tiny stand-alone shop in 1969 and it has been a gathering point for the Australian literary scene ever since. 

Best for: Shopping at the world's best bookstore 

Discover this queer, gender and sexuality-diverse bookshop at the Victorian Pride Centre in St Kilda. Hares & Hyenas is a wide-ranging bookshop that stocks everything from queer fiction to coffee table books, erotica, and the latest magazines worldwide. 

As well as being a queer and intersectional bookshop, it is a fully licensed bar and cafe, and performance venue.

Best for: The finest selection of queer counterculture on this fine continent.

Specialising in Australian art and design books, as well as an inspired selection of local design products, the NGV design store at the Ian Potter Centre never fails to disappoint. 

The book range at the store also features Indigenous Australian and international contemporary art, design, fashion, photography and street art publications.

Best for: Its outstanding Indigenous range and graffiti books.

Hill of Content has all the characteristics of a quintessential bookstore. Across two elegant and serene levels, the cosy shop features a broad yet considered range of contemporary fiction and non-fiction titles, along with an expansive selection of international books. The staff talk with all the fervour and knowledge you’d expect of an established bookshop – it first opened its doors in 1922 – making it one of the best in town for a casual browse.

Best for: CBD dwellers looking to kill a few hours between coffees.

Established in 1965, this is the sort of proper ye olde bookshop where you can expect to find a large and diverse stock of antiquarian and second-hand books from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. It's a whimsical place full of the finest and rarest books - and probably a gateway to some far-off land if you look hard enough. 

Best for: Blowing an obscene fortune on one tiny, ancient little book that will make you happy ever after.

Any shop that brings to mind Fritz Lang's sci-fi genius or Superman's adopted home is fine by us, but Metropolis has so much more to offer than that. For one thing, it's in the beautiful old setting of Curtin House. Secondly, it's run by knowledgeable staff. And thirdly, it has a jaw-dropping collection of specialist books on everything from pop culture and photography to architecture and graphic design. The baby blue shelving and Japanese-style counter are a sight to behold.

Best for: Fashion and textiles books for the bookworms who love their glad rags.

Championing the independent scene since the '60s, The Paperback is one of Melbourne's best-known bookstores, and will no doubt long outlive the chain stores. With an outstanding Australian fiction and non-fiction collection, the Paperback also stocks international titles, music books, poetry, politics and philosophy. 

Staying open way after dark, it is a beacon for nocturnal book lovers.

Best for: Perusing the works of the latest paperback writers while sipping an espresso from Pellegrini's next door.

A relative newcomer to Melbourne's crowded independent book scene, this little beauty busts open the hip suburb of Thornbury. Run by arts columnist Dan Rule and Monkhouse girl Justine Ellis, Perimeter is a champion of independent titles that span contemporary art, photography, architecture, and design.

Best for: The most obscure titles in town and to gawp at the cool contemporary art displayed on the walls.

Bookshops are magical places, and the Little Bookroom is a fine example of providing that magic to adults and children alike. Stocking everything from picture books for toddlers to young adult fiction, comics, graphic novels and a carefully curated range of fiction and non-fiction for adults, the Little Bookroom has been supplying tomes to locals since the 1960s.

Best for: Stocking up on fun and educational books for the little ones in your life. 

In a world where the humble bricks-and-mortar bookshop is under threat from online retailers, Avenue Bookstore is bucking the trend with their Albert Park, Elsternwick and Richmond shops. The independently-owned shops stock a wide range of local and imported titles, with a particular focus on fiction, children's books, and non-fiction books in areas ranging from food and wine to architecture and design.

Best for: Independent fiction by local Australian authors and beautiful coffee table books. 

Possibly Melbourne's kookiest bookstore, and definitely a contender for having the loveliest staff, Syber's has been running since time immemorial, one suspects. A haven of second-hand science fiction and fantasy novels, it’s also a hot spot for true crime and war history.

Best for: Those crazy cats and the weirdest sci-fi and fantasy books known to this dimension.