North Melbourne Books

North Melbourne Books is the place to lose yourself in the magic of reading.

Longtime North Melbourne residents Chris Saliba and Chris Hubbard followed their love of books and made the leap to own their own bookshop in their local neighbourhood around ten years ago.

North Melbourne Books is now a beloved fixture in Queensberry Street - it’s even been immortalised in a charming illustration by American artist Vivienne Strauss.

The front room stocks a hand-picked selection of new fiction and non-fiction books, while a second room displaying children’s books invites you to cuddle up with your little one on the rug to share a story together.

The shop offers books, games and gifts for the keen reader.

“Chris Hubbard orders all the kids’ books, cards and gift items. I concentrate on the nonfiction books, and then we share fiction orders together,” explains Chris Saliba.

If you are looking for reviews on the latest books, he also curates a list each month of the books that he is reading and publishes them on the website and in their monthly newsletter for customers to read.

Out of the thousands of books available on their shelves, Chris plucks out one book that’s particularly interesting for North Melbourne residents: Blue Lake by local author David Sornig.

“The blue lake was down the street near where the Arden Street football field is now and stretched beyond Footscray Road,” Chris explains of the book.
”Before white settlement, it was surrounded by beautiful pink flowers, and it was a clear blue lake. It turned into West Melbourne swamp once white settlement came in, and they put a lot of refuse and junk into it. The book concentrates on the area in Docklands where the Melbourne Star is now, which was a Depression-era slum area shanty town called Dudley Flats.”
“Locals will recognise places mentioned in the book, because it concentrates on three people who used to live in that shanty town, and they would frequent North Melbourne.”

Chris likes that North Melbourne is a tucked-away suburb that has a sense of community that has helped to support their bricks and mortar store.