Recycled paperbacks
Want to find a 70s fondue cookbook? Crave the latest Footrot Flats potboiler? Need hardback Hemingways, paperback Proust, dusty Dostoyevsky? Scrape together your shekels and hit these fine Sydney vintage book markets
By Bianca O'Neill
Sydney Swap and Sell Market
Paddy's Swap & Sell Market is Australia's biggest undercover garage sale with over 250 stands selling all pre-loved treasure (and trash), most notably a veritable smorgasbord of literary boat-floaters. Odds and sods rule. Factory-floor cheapies, outcast classics, international edition oddities, rebranded bestsellers and, best yet, if you love a hawker-market barter game, Paddy's plays it.
Top Tip Bring old, unwanted books and see if you can swap them for a fresh batch of literary treasure.
Sydney Swap & Sell Market, under Carpark V at Sydney Markets, off Parramatta Rd, Flemington 2129. (1300 361 589). Sat 6am-2pm.
Glebe Markets
The primary school in Glebe hosts one of Sydney's coolest Saturday book markets. The joy here is in the fossick. Although several corker book boffin stands are dotted around, you're just as likely to find
a first editon Nabakov or autographed Roald Dahl in a pile of fusty furniture, art, vinyl and barely-funtioning electrical equipment. Better yet, once your rummaging fingers find the prize, you wrap them around a snag and chill to live bands on the grass.
Top Tip Check the second hand book stall on your left as you walk in the front entrance off Glebe Point Rd.
Glebe Markets, Cnr Derby Pl & Glebe Pt Rd, Glebe 2037. (0419 291 449). Sat 10am-4pm.
Surry Hills Market
Small and sultry yet tried and tested, Surry Hills has good quality books at reasonable prices - a surefire hit with page-turning Puffin readers.
Top Tip Grab brunch at The Book Kitchen nearby. They have a fabulous cookbook library you can purchase from.
Surry Hills Market, cnr Crown & Little Collins St (Shannon Reserve), Surry Hills 2010. (02 9310 2888). First Sat of every month 7am-4pm.
Rozelle Markets
With approximately 100 stalls on both days of the weekend, Rozelle Markets are a Sydney favourite for rough diamond finds. Vintage books come by the bucketload here - everything from complete sets of Enid Blyton's Famous Five to gloriously bourbon and cocaine-dusted copies of Motley Crue's The Dirt. Set in the front grounds of historic Rozelle School, the bookcentric bric-a-brac is wonderfully unpredictable. That's the charm.
Top Tip If you don't find what you seek, cross Victoria Road and pop into the Salvos or Vinnies on Darling St for more surprising book bargains (Rankin Sisters bios etc).
Rozelle Markets Darling St, Rozelle 2039. (02 9818 5373). Sat & Sun 9am-4pm.
Kirribilli Markets
Famous for its early starts and colourful characters (alas, John Howard sightings aren't so common now), this is one book market where literary magpies descend from dawn, swooping on iconic hardback titles from the 300 stalls. Our editor bought an autographed first-edition Victor Richardson autobiography here for 20c. Beat that!
Top Tip Get in early. It's the quick or the bookless.
Krribilli Markets Bradfield Park (directly underneath the northern pylon of the Harbour Bridge), Milsons Point 2061. Fourth Sat of each month 7am-3pm.