Kinokuniya’s Second Australian Bookstore Opens in Chatswood

Kinokuniya is a treasured, delightful labyrinth of books, stationery and gifts, with an enormous window-rich corner facade overlooking George Street in the CBD. Since hitting the site in 2002 (after moving from a Neutral Bay spot that opened in 1996), it’s been the only Australian outpost for the Japanese bookstore chain. That is, until a bumper new store opened in Westfield Chatswood on Thursday April 9.

The new store is more modest in size, but it’s worth the visit. Walking past Black Star Pastry, you’re met with a warm wood facade set in grids, with pops of colour from book displays.

Inside, the shelves hold the usual reads. Fiction lines the front of the store, romance gets its own line of bookshelves, and there’s a smattering of photography, travel and cooking books towards the back. In the city, the children’s and young adult fiction sections are at home in the show-stopping windows of Kinokuniya’s Town Hall sibling – here, they are ensconced in a blue-carpeted nook, where shelves double as seating for tiny readers.

In a Westfield that already has a Dymocks and a QBD, the new bookstore needed to carve out its own space. What that is becomes clear when you make your way further into the store.

Here you’ll find a focus on the many genres within East Asian literature. There’s plenty of manga, but its joined by a combined section for translated manhwa (Korean comics) and manhua (Chinese comics). Graphic novels and light novels abound, and there are sections apiece for both Japanese-language and Chinese-language books. Literature by Asian authors has its own section, and an entire row of bookshelves holds danmei titles, the Chinese version of BL (Boy’s Love), a genre dedicated to romances between two men.

In keeping with the flagship, there’s an excellent stationery section. The gifting range leans book-themed, with caps proclaiming “Romantasy Reader” and “I Love Sports (Romance)”, and plushies that look like sentient books. Behind the counter, you can grab a Kinokuniya tote if you’ve picked up a book (or five) along the way.

In big book news, it’s also rumoured Kinokuniya will open its first Melbourne store later this year.

Kinokuniya
Level 5, Westfield Chatswood
1 Anderson Street, Chatswood

Hours:
Mon to Wed 9.30am–6pm
Thu 9.30am–9pm
Fri 9.30am–6pm
Sat 9am–6pm
Sun 10am–6pm

@kinokuniya_chatswood
kinokuniya.com.au