How a Melbourne bookselling job reshaped Caitlin Cassidy’s view of reading

Caitlin Cassidy’s account of working at Melbourne’s independent bookstore chain Readings traces a job that began with irregular event shifts in early 2018. Then studying for a master’s degree at the University of Melbourne, she met the chain’s programming and community engagement manager at a book launch. That encounter led to selling books at events and, later, permanent shifts at its Hawthorn store.

Cassidy describes customers as central to the work’s appeal: a bereaved husband seeking reading recommendations, older callers wanting conversation and a grandfather assembling a birthday collection. Pandemic closures interrupted that contact. She eventually left for journalism, crediting bookselling with changing her understanding of reading from solitary enjoyment to shared connection.

The essay illustrates the social role one Melbourne bookstore played beyond selling books. Cassidy recalls that visitors could linger without buying anything and that colleagues introduced her to unfamiliar cultural interests. These experiences underpin her view of bookshops as community spaces, though the account offers personal testimony rather than wider evidence about the sector.