Desire Books

You could schedule out a bit of a ‘book crawl’ in Manly — Desire Books is just round the corner from another secondhand bookstore, both packed with re-​readable treasure. Desire is probably the more ‘highbrow’ of the two — along with some pop novels, there are shelves dedicated to classics and some quite alternative stuff.
The owner seems to have read a scarily large proportion of them and can bang off in conversation about just about any one of the authors they feature — we ended up in the midst of one of ‘those conversations’ about ‘We need to talk about Kevin’.
Desire will buy books too. Frequent traders can establish an account, so they maintain a record of credit and you can pick up your replacement whenever something takes your fancy. I love a new book, but there’s also something tantalising about one that has been read before — I wonder who by, and I wonder what they thought?

Cooool.
A second hand bookstore that occasionally sells new books, this little boutique store has a lot of character. The owner is a charistmatic woman who enjoys chatting and making a joke, so she’s very approachable and capable of helping you find what you’re looking for.
It doesn’t do mainstream, but focuses on lesser-​known but very capable, often award winning literary artists, with a particular focus on history and the classics. There are typewriters on trhe walls near the ceiling, and towards the back are two glorious looking armchairs with a typewriter between them, almost as if one of these long since past authors had just risen from his place to make a cup of tea.
In a book store, the vibe is very important, and this store has it right, at least matching the books it sells. What they may or may not have, is the book you’re looking for. Have a browse, or call ahead if looking for a specific book.
Oh, and I have been informed they are very picky about which second hand books they take. They’re all in very good condition.