Great Second Hand Book Store in Brisbane: "Archives Fine Book", My New Shelter in Town

I recently migrated to Australia because of work, wherein around one and a half month ago I touched down Brisbane. I would like to share one particular place that immediately become my favorite from day one for me in this new country. The place is none other than a book store that sell second hand book called "Archives Fine Book" located at 40 Charlotte street, Brisbane City. This book store has actually enticed my interest back in the day when I first came up at Brisbane, around two years ago. Back then, I was in Brisbane for just two days in a work trip with my previous employer, walking with a hungry stomach to find a Malaysian restaurant I randomly found in the internet and I happened to walk past this book store as it is located just next to the restaurant. It was 7 pm, so of course it was closed already. Fast forward two year later, the hotel I am staying in Brisbane for two weeks is coincidently located also not far away from this book store. At the same Charlotte street seperated by only 1 block. Life is generoulsy giving me a second chance sometimes. In a typical Brisbane summer day with blazing sun up above, I walk into this book store, and she embraces me with an open arm this time.

Figures 1. Archives Fine Book, 40 Charlotte street Brisbane City 4000, Australia.

From the very first step inside the book store store, I couldn't help but enchanted with how majestic this store is. There is a signpost outside of the store with a glaring statement of "1 million books" and I think what the book store showcase is living up to that tag. This book store housed seemingly infinite numbers of books that would make a bookworm gasp in ectasy just by gazing toward all these bookshelfs and its collections. This book store is just like the place where Joe Goldberg (played brilliantly by Penn Badgley), from "You" netflix series, is hailed from. The bookshelf itself is approximately 3 and a half meter in height, and if my memory serves right there are 10 rows just like what the picture below shown. The books collection itself were group based on topic, marked with a paper signpost that sounds like "Medicince", "Pregnancy", "Baby Names", "Freud", and stuff. In a glimpse I can find plenty of books from various genre in this book store, from Game of Throne to Ernest Hemmingway master pieces. The price of each and every single book is written with pencil on the first page of the book itself, and in my humble opinion the price is good. There were some collection of antique and rare books, preserved in a fancly glass box, that come at premium price as well.

Figures 2. Book, book, and just book everywhere.

Walking through the alley of book collections, I ended up at a stair that bridge the front room and the back room. My eyes were once again soothed with just another myriad of book collections as the picture below shown. The back room apparently stashes not as much collection as the front room, but it still takes my breath away. There was an old style chair and table placed at center of the room, allegedly to give the touch of elegant to what was already a vintage room, something that came straight out from victorian era perhaps. This part of the book store seemingly housed books that fall under the genre of history, as I can recall that I can find plenty of books that talk about Southern American history (Hacienda, the conquistador, Colombus, etc). When I walk around this room, my imagination takes me to certain place from Harry Potter novel, that is the the Hogwart library that stored the forbidden books. If Hermione or Severus Snape have the chance, I suppose that they would spend more than a whole day to peruse all the books in this room.

Figures 3. The back room that stored just another fine collection of books.

After an hour or so, I concluded my visit that day in this book store by purchasing a book written by John Simmons that goes by the title of "The Giants Book of Scientist". For some reason that couldn't yet be explained I was attracted by the story of Enrico Fermi, a famous atomic physic expert from Italy whose story happened to be discussed by John Simmons in this book. This book store will certainly be my shelter whenever I stumble upon Brisbane again in the future. I vow to my self that I will at least escaped from my mining work routine once a month, and this book store will be one of my first destination. If you one day visit Brisbane too, I humbly suggest you to pay visit to this place as well. I hope that, just like me, you can find that one book that you are looking for, and who knows. Perhaps that one book could change your life, for the better. Last but not least, below is the web address of the book store. Happy reading.

https://www.archivesfinebooks.com.au