Warina Book Exchange.
The Warina book exchange has been a really important place for me over the years. It’s not what it used to be, but I still have a real fondness for the Warina book exchange.
For a bit of context we should probably talk about the Warina shopping centre. Warina is the oldest shopping centre in Townsville. Okay I don’t actually know that for sure, since my Townsville history isn’t that good. Let’s be honest, it’s just that Warina FEELS like the oldest shopping centre in Townsville. It’s old-fashioned, the toilets feel like the kind you find in an outdoor park, not a modern shopping centre. It’s… really a strange place to go into. I feel like I’m travelling back in time.
The book exchange is kinda like that too. It’s a remnant — book exchanges aren’t that common any more. But there it is still trundling along.
Warina Book exchange was important to me because I bought so many comics there over the years. Second hand issues of G.I. Joe, Transformers, Rom Spaceknight and even an issue of Battle Beasts that was my only issue of that 4 issue series for over a decade (I now have three issues).
I went into Warina Book Exchange on the weekend to see what it was like. It’s been nearly 7 years since book exchanges have really had any significant amount of comics here in Townsville, and I was disappointed (but not surprised) to find that Warina Book Exchange doesn’t have any sorts of comics at all any more. It’s sad, but it’s the way things are now.
I still have a fondness for Warina Book Exchange, but it’s not really the place I liked any more. It still has a fairly nice little science fiction/horror section, so that’s good. But dammit, I miss finding random comics.
–Andrew S.
