The whimsy and magic of Dunedin's second-hand bookstores

Posted: Monday Dec 04, 2023

The Book Collector is a memoir about Tony Eyre’s lifelong passion for reading and collecting books. In this extract he describes the second-hand book scene in Dunedin.

For longevity, Dunedin’s Galaxy Books in the north end of Dunedin certainly takes the prize. It opened in 1977 in Lower Stuart Street adjacent to the District Court as Galaxy Books and Records. The current owner, Bill Brosnan took over the business from his brother Burny in 1983 and he was still operating on the same site in 1990 when a regular customer, David Gray, a fan of military books and Soldier of Fortune magazine came into the shop. When he was told that no recent copies of his favourite magazine were available for sale, Gray became agitated and threatened one of the Galaxy staff, supposedly with an assault rifle stored in a cardboard box. This incident was a portent to a shocking and tragic event many months later when David Gray went on a mass shooting rampage, killing thirteen residents in his own community, the seaside township of Aramoana, near Dunedin.

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