~ THE HARD TO FIND ~

yvettecarol

Aug 31

The legendary Hard to Find Bookshop began in the Auckland (New Zealand) suburb of Ponsonby in 1983. It was founded by Warwick Jordan, a long-time book enthusiast, who won his first writing prize at ten. His love of literature remained a fixture throughout his years at Waikato University, where he gained a Masters in Literature. He started a hand-operated letterpress printing and publishing business, Hard Echo Press, in 1978. After twenty years of producing books, he closed the press and concentrated his energy on his secondhand bookstores. The Hard to Find grew rapidly in size until there were nine different stores in five cities. Then, Warwick decided to downsize, retaining the Auckland store and opening one last location in Dunedin, 20 Dowling Street. The latter encompasses Hard to Find's popular online books. The website debuted in 1998. Now they have over 140,000 books available in the online catalogue. The books available online are not the same titles in the stores. Dunedin's store offers 50,000, while the flagship Auckland store offers 90,000 titles. On 15th June 2018, the Auckland store reopened at its gorgeous new location - 2-8 St Benedict's Street, Eden Terrace.

Warwick has poured lots of energy into developing the newly located Auckland store… 'generating a different and unique style.' And, style it has! The lovely two-story brick villa used to be part of the convent attached to St. Benedict's church, located on the opposite side of the street. The owner and his family live in the upper apartments while the store rambles over the ground floor. The quirky rooms with 14-foot ceilings, plaster mouldings, and stained glass windows feature endless bookshelves of every kind you could hope to find. I've been shopping at the legendary Hard to Find for thirty years. My home library of books on mythology - which serves as a vital nerve centre of my writing life - is the direct result of the endless hours I have spent over the years shopping there.

It is one of those stores you visit every year or so because you can depend on being able to buy at least one priceless treasure there each visit. I've always shopped there alone. After all, what more solitary pursuit could there possibly be than bookshopping? But this year, when I began to think about making my annual pilgrimage to the store, I thought of taking buddies with me. Followers of this blog may remember me telling you guys about starting my first ever "in-person" critique group, The Fabulatores, last year. We're fond of doing bookish outings and events together. So, I asked the girls if they would like to come with me. It turned out neither of them had heard of or ever been to the Hard to Find Bookstore. This clear deficit had to be corrected forthwith.

We made the trip into the city to visit recently and it was so much fun. As soon as we stepped through the doors, the girls said, "Oh, wow, we see what you mean." I gave a quick tour of where to find what, and we split up with a time to meet at the exit set between us. We proceeded to weave in and out of the warren of booklined rooms, meeting up at times to discuss our finds before wandering on to discover more treasures. Shopping at such a bookstore is like being a gold hunter. You're searching for those books you never knew you needed and some you knew you did and the ones that suddenly appear unbidden in between as exhilarating surprises. An hour and a half later, we emerged with armfuls of new-to-us books and smiles on our faces that took a long time to wear off.
I can't imagine a better way to spend a Saturday. Then, I came home to read. Ah! What a good life.
Have you ever got a favourite bookstore?