Asia Bookroom

About Asia Bookroom

Asia Bookroom is a specialist bookshop. We stock books, ephemera, maps and other works on paper all related to Asia. Quirky to classic - old & new. Asia Bookroom stands on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and contribution they make to the life of Canberra area. At the core of our philosophy is a committment to literacy and transfer of knowledge. To this end Asia Bookroom and its customers raise funds at our regular events for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. In the last two months of the year funds are raised through our Christmas Tree to support Classrooms in the Clouds in Nepal. Asia Bookroom (formerly The Old Bookroom) was established as a branch of Weekend Gallery Books Pty Ltd in July 1982. Since the late 1960s Barbara Burdon had been operating Weekend Gallery (as it was originally called) from a converted flat underneath her house in the Canberra suburb of Hughes. In the early days it sold only antique prints and maps and some reproductions. A chance buy at a local auction was the catalyst for Barbara's bookselling career. She and her husband Tom were attending the auction with the hope of buying some prints and maps. During the viewing they had also looked at the books that were to be sold. They saw a fine library of history, literature and reference. Although their intention was only to bid on a few lots of books for personal interest, by the end of the auction almost all of the books offered were theirs. Gradually over the next few years the books overtook the prints and maps as the mainstay of the business and Weekend Gallery became Weekend Gallery Books. Asia Bookroom (as Weekend Gallery Books is now called) has now moved into its fifth premises - 9 times the size of the original shop

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