Local news for local people
A look at the Book Nook
May 28, 2026
There are a lot of quotes about books, but possibly the best came from Groucho Marx: "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read". The words "Too many books" are just as vacuous and meaningless as "Leftover bacon".
Book shops are rare these days, and any belonging to a "chain" seem to be sterile places which just want you to buy what everyone else is buying. (Buying isn't reading, of course.) The best book shops were always independent outlets owned by book lovers, but Glebebooks' main store and Abbey's are a long way from Oberon and Bob Gould's wonderful and chaotic bomb site in Newtown is long gone. It looks like the nearest real book shops to Oberon might be Books Plus in Bathurst (who only have a web presence on Instagram so you have to have an account there to look at it), the rather wonderful Lambda Books in Wentworth Falls or Gleebooks' tiny shop in Blackheath. (Disclaimer: these are the ones this bibliophile knows about. There might be more. PB)
What we
have in Oberon is the Book Nook, run by the
Friends
of Oberon Library (FOOLs). It operates out of the Robert Hooper Community Centre next to the Library, and is open on Wednesdays
between 10am and 1pm and on Saturdays from 9am to noon. As well as
books there are games and DVDs.
As everything is donated (now you know what to do with the books you no longer need) and staffed by volunteers, all the proceeds go towards improving what's at the Library.
Oberon Matters dropped in one Saturday for a look around and despite keeping a firm hold on the wallet left with five books. When it comes to bookshops, Oscar Wilde's comment in another context comes to mind: "I can resist everything except temptation".
