Much-loved secondhand bookshop lives to write another chapter

A much-loved and long-running Auckland secondhand bookshop will live to write another chapter, having saved itself from closure.

Hard to Find Books was struggling to find a new location for its hundreds of thousands of titles after its landlord - the Catholic Church - decided to sell the famous former convent where the shop has traded for eight years.

Following months of hunting the shop has finally found a home, but as other secondhand bookshops close their doors it's still facing a tough fight for survival.

After spending the past five months lugging hundreds of heavy boxes and sliding thousands of books on to the new shop's shelves it is hard to believe that Warwick Jordan still wants to buy more.

It's lucky, then, that Hard to Find's new location is only a hop across the road, tucked away in the basement of Auckland's vinyl haven - Southbound records - in Eden Terrace.

"If we don't buy them who will? There's less and less second hand bookshops out there and the ones that are out there, a lot of them aren't buying at the moment because things are really hard. But I'm obsessive I'll just keep going into debt or whatever and carry on."

The huge new basement space can house about 250,000 books allowing Jordan to empty out shipping containers full of titles he couldn't display at the current shop.

But despite its size, Jordan worries it will not be the same as the grand, 120-year-old convent provided by Catholic church eight years ago in what he hailed as a 'miracle' - when the shop left its Onehunga location due to steep rent rises.

"It's got so much character and it's got history. There's the confessional which is the children'

s room, there's little fittings in the walls where the nuns would get holy water before they'd go in for communion in the chapel. Just sort of the vibe of the place, it's just a beautiful, amazing building."

Despite the new space lacking these character features, Jordan is thankful to have somewhere to house his passion.

He said without the support built over the shop's 43 years he was not sure it could have survived the uncertain times.

"I did debate about do I just take this as a hint of shut up and go away, but there was so many people who didn't want us to close down. I mean there's hardly any secondhand bookshops left, and we are a dinosaur and I know it's not a very sensible economic model and all the rest of it, but I decided the amount of community support was kind of such that I've got to keep going."

In the past three years two of Auckland's longest-standing secondhand bookshops have closed their doors.

In 2023, Herne Bay's Dominion books shut down after 37 years when new landlords put up the rent.

Jason Books, in the city centre, closed after 55 years at the end of 2024.

Rachel Lynch - the manager of the Open Book, an oasis of pre-loved novels in Ponsonby - agreed that running a secondhand bookshop is hard work.

"It's not easy, I mean just straight up money is difficult, we try and pay our staff fairly and foot traffic especially in this particular part is quite difficult, especially on those poor weather days the money is just not there at all."

Lynch said it was lucky to have generous owners.

"Basically our goal is to break even, ideally, but basically the shareholders, the owners are really enthusiastic about having a bookshop that stays open and serves the community and sometimes that requires extra input from the shareholders."

With hundreds of kilometres of shelving to shift, along with hundreds of thousands of books, Jordan said the backing of the community and donations to a Givealittle page played a large part in making Hard to Find's move happen.

"For example we had to paint the floor because it was concrete, we couldn't have afforded to paint it if it hadn't been for give a little, and the shelving, we've had to get a lot of shelving."

With the shop now once again safe from closure Jordan hopes the new, slightly harder-to-find location can thrive within a tough retail climate.

"I just hope they'll like it. Where we are is iconic, where we were before that was iconic. Can I do iconic again, that's kind of a big ask, I would hope I create something that people like, and want to come back to and get a buzz out of."

The shop is expected to open at its new location around mid-March.