The Thousands

Nestled amongst a bakery, newsagent and several boarded-up shop fronts is arguably Australia’s best anthology of out-of-print and collectible books. Co-owner Anne prefers to call the shop a ‘storage facility’ rather than a retail store, explaining that 90 percent of sales are made online from local and international customers. Rows and rows of hard-covered, embossed and beautifully bound books line the shelves in categories from antiques to history and of course, the arts.

**It seems the reason some books go out of print is not due to a lack of interest, but the amalgamation of publishers and the downgrade in textiles used in production. Much of the stock is not as the name suggests, ‘out of print’, just no longer printed in the handicraft of yesteryear. Paperbacks have replaced hard covers and staples have replaced binding, meaning original copies of constantly reproduced classics now have antique status.

Anne’s greatest fear is that reading is going out of fashion, but I assured her it wasn’t on the premise that TwoThousand is fashionable and that you would read this story.