Confession: Beaufort Street Books is one of my favourite stores. Why? Because since opening in 2010, Jane and the team have gone out of their way to create not just a book store, but a meeting and gathering space for those in the local community and beyond. And they hold evening events that typically include wine tastings – what’s not to love?!
The store has a fantastic selection of well edited offerings, almost all of which the staff seem to have read and can chat to you about knowledgeably. Tell them which authors or books you like and they’ll give you recommendations of other titles and authors that you’re most likely to enjoy too. I’ve always found their recommendations to be spot on, which is why I love going there to buy books (or vouchers as gifts) for myself and my friends.
But it’s more than a book store…
Beaufort Street Books takes what I think is an inspired approach to making the most of their space and facilities through their regular free or low cost events, most of which still relate to the written word. There is the twice monthly story time sessions for pre school-aged children and the monthly Literary Lounge events (the pic above is from the Mexican food themed night they held featuring Sam Ward, Chef at el Publico – we drank cocktails whilst Sam made sublime Mexican treats for us to eat and shared stories of his travels through the country). They’ve hosted yoga classes in the store, speed dating nights (where introductions include talking about your favourite books) and in March will be introducing monthly Movie Nights, where the movies shown will be those based on books and you’ll be able to buy the book at a 10% discount for the month beforehand.
And they support local…
Whether its partnering with a local Cricket Club to host a breakfast with Ricky Ponting to discuss his new book, promoting local West Australian authors by hosting reader meet and greets, or working with and promoting local suppliers in offering wine tastings or food at events, Beaufort Street Books seems to go out of its way to engage and work with those in its community in a genuine spirit of generosity and love for what they do.
So pop in…
So next time you pop down to Beaufort Street pop in to Beaufort Street Books and meet the team and see what they have on offer. Better yet, subscribe to their newsletter that goes out every month or so with details of all their upcoming events – that’s how I stay up-to-date and what inspired this blog post. So support the local that supports local, even if you just swap one of those online book purchases every so often with one in-store, to help keep this wonderful business and its great events going.
