Polyester Books – 330 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

Polyester Books – “the world’s freakiest bookstore”.  

Aaah the memories of being a wee lass and seeing my first mind-boggling dose of counter culture for the first time:  realising that not only were subjects like street art, tattooing, fetishism, the occult and alternative music things that other people were interested in, but they were taken SERIOUSLY!  And people wrote BOOKS about them!  The jolly all round squee-ness of realising that there are communities open to dissenting views and that you can be educated about them… well, let’s just say it warms the cockles of this slightly more grown up and savvy heart.  

Polyester Books is indeed a paradise for the profane, a haven for the heretical, a counter cultural cornucopia.  As their website shows, the topics you can browse through at Polyester include:  Globalisation, Freaks and Tattoos, Mind Expansion, Satanic/Witchcraft/Magick, Pop culture, True Crime and ‘Weird Shit’.  Of course, this also means you can purchase from their website too, but a visit is definitely worth your while, what  with their charismatic staff, often great music selection and the ability to leaf through some of these titles to read and see with your own eyes what in fact they’re about before shelling out your hard earned or pressuring your open minded friends for a book on the UFOs that Ate Elvis. 

The best thing about Polyester Books – they’re totally dedicated to supporting counterculture: so much so that they’ve worn 2 brushes with the law and seizures of property because the books they import are sometimes considered rather.naughty.indeed.  And that from Norwegian Black Metal to Zombie Skinheads:  they’ve really got books on absolutely everything kinda kooky at Polyester.  Including some great local and import Zines. 

The worst thing about Polyester Books:  they should be open later – I guess there’s always the interwebs, but if this were Greenwich Village they’d be open until 4am: sometimes you don’t really want to read about satanic bondage in the whitehouse until after 1am, y’know.  seriously. 

Details in their sig above. Opening hours: Monday-Thursday 10am-8pm, Friday and Saturday 10am-9pm and Sunday 11am-8pm.  

Subscribe to their mailing list through the website.