second-hand books | peace and quiet | ponsonby
About Us
The Open Book is a secondhand bookshop and a stage for culture. We upcycle your book donations and pop them on the shelves for others to enjoy. We run a regular series of literary readings, with the occasional musical performance thrown in. And we dig out fifty or so boxes of books that we can’t sell at full price for our quarterly clearance sale (February, April, July, October).
Our home is an historic villa a few steps up off the street at 201 Ponsonby Road. Or you can find us online. Look, you already have.
Who we Are
Hayden Glass was a long-time Ponsonby resident until a few years back. Nowadays, when he is not selling second-hand books, he lives in Wellington and works for the Government.
Julie Fry divides her time between Brooklyn, New York, and a family farm near Motueka. She now works as a consulting economist, having spent her earlier career in the public service in New Zealand and in London. On the blog Julie explains how she got involved with this project. Julie and Hayden met while writing a book about the economics of immigration called Going Places which you can now buy in the store.
Hayley Hamilton lives in Wellington and is an enthusiastic book reader. When not reading, she is (weirdly) also an economist.
Juliet Gerrard lives just down the road. She is not an economist.
Here’s to Stories
Here's to stories.
They're how we make sense of our world, how we get out of the day to day, how we remember what it used to be like, and how we make maps for our future selves.
Here's to reality.
To physical things. To actual feels. To saving our pennies. And to not getting our clickstream tracked.
Here's to humanity.
It needn't all be hustle and bustle, international brands and manufactured hospitality.
And here's to books.
The footprint of another mind. A store of useful memories. A picture worth a thousand words.
So climb into unexpected spaces. Explore new ideas.
Slow down time for a minute. Or an hour.
This bookstore is a home for treasures.
Come see what you can find. Reasonable prices too.