Horton Books

Horton Books is a small bookstore that has a very decent, though minimal collection of new fiction and non-​fiction literature, art books, travel books, and some CD’s. It’s a nice little store, packed to the brim with interesting publications. The art and travel sections in particular, are very good.

I don’t know what it is about Horton Books that makes me like it so much. It might be its cupboard-​like quality — that it’s small and overloaded with books and entering is like going into another world, or perhaps just a world before online book purchases. It might be that this atmosphere also makes me feel like I’m in some kind of old fantasy film, where I’m going to stumble onto a book like The Neverending Story and take it home and be transported to some distant reality with flying dog-​like creatures. Maybe that fantasy says something of the great selection of books; that the shop is loaded with titles, old and new and obscure and fascinating, that you just don’t see in other bookstores. I don’t know, but I do like this Smith St shop a whole lot.
And if a title does catch your eye but you can’t buy it then and there, the shop does have a new online shopping outlet through its website. Yes, even cool old bookstores have to get with the times, I guess — but if you can, go to this place in person and enjoy the real thing.

I like this little bookshop because it has a great selection of books on art, architecture, history and other aspects of culture. I always feel tempted to buy something even before I step into the shop because of the great display of books in their window.
Often they are remainder books at discount prices making them even more tempting. They also have children’s books and a few other subjects that I’m not interested in, like gardening. It is such a small shop that there is only two aisles of books but it is always well displayed and easy to browse. You can also buy books on-​line at their website but I haven’t done that yet as I still prefer the tangible experience of shopping for books in an actual bookshop.
Easing the attraction of browsing, and because this is a small shop, I am not asked to leave my backpack at the front desk, as you are in so many of Melbourne’s larger, independent and secondhand bookshops.
The last time I was in I bought a wonderful book on Athanasius Kircher, a remarkable Renaissance scholar. I probably would have remained ignorant of Kircher’s life and work if I hadn’t been browsing the shelves of this bookshop.