A bookshop with a difference

AN ARMSTRONG Creek local and her sister have launched an online second-hand bookstore, with the aim of saving books from landfill and giving them a new life.

Operating under the name Sorâ Sisters, Breanna and Nakita Langman rescue unwanted books from opportunity shops, online marketplaces, the roadside, and more recently have begun accepting donations direct from the community.

“Sorâ Sisters came about because both my sister and I are passionate about two things and that is books and sustainability, and we just wanted to work out how to merge the two,” 24-year-old Breanna said.

The books the duo save are then sold at heavily reduced prices as lucky dip-styled mystery packages and billed as ‘blind dates’, a concept that has gained popularity in recent years.

“Each book is wrapped up – people don’t get to see what the title is. All they get is what we call our ‘seduction’. So, that’s to seduce you into our date and that’s a little bit of a synopsis on what the book’s about,” Breanna said.

“There’s a genre listed on it and then a rating out of five. We say, if it tickles your fancy, then take it home and enjoy your date.”

Since their launch last year, the siblings have also become a regular fixture at local markets spanning Geelong through to Warracknabeal, where Nakita, 30, is based.

“We take the judgement out of book shopping,” she said.

“Whether you’re a 93-year-old Mary who likes a bit of a spicy romance, or you’re 12-year-old Timmy who likes aliens…there’s no judgement in what we do and what you buy.

“We love to see the faces light up when people take that wrapping off and they see this book for the first time and it’s something that they never would have gone towards in a normal bookshop.”

Breanna said more than four million books, on average, are thrown away in Australia each year, contributing tonnes of waste to landfill.

Many opportunity shops across the region are also overwhelmed with unwanted books and have stopped accepting donations, but Breanna said, “send them our way”.

With goals that include helping to make reading more affordable, and to give back to their local communities, the siblings are now hoping to distribute the books donated to them between local schools and kindergartens.

Starting June 29, they’ll also be hosting monthly book sales with books priced between $2-3, allowing the sisters to “keep the cycle going”.

“We’re both very passionate about our communities, so the more books that we can take on, the more money we can make…the more we can donate to schools [and] we can donate to people less fortunate than us who would love to read, but they just can’t afford it.”

For more information, or to donate your preloved books, head to sorasisters.com or follow Sorâ Sisters on Facebook.