Metropolis Bookshop

Metropolis is that shop that has books you didn’t know you wanted — from quirky children’s books and pop culture casebooks down to serious fashion and design volumes. Metropolis also carries humorous postcards and beloved Moleskin journals.
Metropolis is tucked away on the third floor of Curtin House on Swanston St. It has a strict no-​mobile policy and an open floor plan that makes browsing easy, but they kindly request you don’t take more than a couple of books off the shelves at a time. Many of them are large, heavy, and pricey so it’s understandable.
Metropolis is one of my favourite book shops in Melbourne. I always spend more there than I intended. It’s a small shop with a ton of personality.

I love the hell out of this bookshop. It’s not taking itself too seriously. This is not the place to come and discuss literary brilliance in hushed tones or find a big dusty classic. This is a fun bookshop, geared at fun gifts and design geeks.
Pop culture is celebrated heavily, so if you want a joke gift or the latest ridiculous meme to turn hard copy (Grumpy Cat et al), you will find it here if anywhere. If anyone ever made Kramer’s coffee table book about coffee tables — it would wind up in this store.
Some may pass it off as a little too frivolous for this reason, but the reason I love this place is that if you’re looking for a book on something like typography, branding, photography, sociology, music or fashion, there’s a good chance you’ll find it here. For some people that is serious stuff and these books are the real deal. If you work in advertising, graphic design etc — you should check it out.
The children’s books are quirky and designed to amuse parents.
I love the addition of the greeting cards and postcards. I’m usually here gift shopping and because I have a tendency to see gift giving as a personal challenge to find the most nonsensical card to accompany it, this is a one-​stop-​shop for me.
If you can stop judging the plaid-​wearing bearded man reading in the corner long enough, you’ll probably find something to entertain you here.

Metropolis has a top selection of art and design books, as well as books on music and film. It also has a really interesting collection of children’s books, including titles such as «Everyone Poops» and «My Tattooed Dad».
The majority of titles on offer are quite expensive coffee table books, that are fantastic for gifts, but that I don’t imagine many people buy for themselves.
Metropolis is a great place to kill time, as you could easily spend hours flicking through the glossy pages of their walls of shiny books. Having said that, I’ve been to Metropolis many times and have only ever bought postcards (of which they have a fantastic selection of weird and wonderful pictures), but if I ever get rich I’ll be sure to buy up big!

They have their own bars, their own restaurants, cafes, coffee orders, clothing stores and fashion trends, so why not have their own bookstore? Found it! Faux-​hipsters finally have a place to crowd their optic nerves with foreign titles. Metropolis does not stock your ordinary book, to reserve a place in curtain house you’ve got to offer something cutting edge, something foreign. Woops, mind the tongue in cheek.
Metropolis is stock full of either foreign or foreign-​inspired titles focused around art, photography, fashion and design. More often than not the books contain more pictures than they do words. Once you’ve overcome the somewhat try-​hard tone and the lack of customer service, this place is still a great store to find interesting titles, lay back and have a bit of a free read. Also great for gifts and coffee tables!

I don’t know if you know, but the city of Metropolis is Superman’s home. I don’t know that he’d have much to read in the Melbourne bookstore, but I can imagine Clark Kent fitting right in.
Reason being, Clark Kent seems like he should be passionate about design — the glasses, the white shirt, the slicked-​down hair, all chosen to tell a very specific story about their wearer. Kent epitomises design as semiotics, as the conveyance of meaning.
And that’s the kind of thing that Metropolis’ clientele loves. If you want a book of hundreds of Japanese six inch cartoon characters, or a collection of old Black Mask and Doubleday pulp covers, Metropolis is the place. There’s relatively extensive sections on art, on architecture, on graphic design and music.
Admittedly, it’s not exactly cheap, but then these books never are.

Metropolis Bookshop is an absolute haven for design aficionados. Situated on level three of the super cool Curtin House complex, with Rooftop Bar above and Cookie below, there was no way this place was going to be anything but top-​tier. Beautifully laid out and organised by genre to facilitate casual browsing, you could easily while away the hours here. With volumes on art, graphic design, architecture, photography, fashion and textiles, popular culture, film, music and performing arts, there is just an insane amount of amazing books to choose from. Whether your thing is art-​house erotica or eco design, you’re sure to find it here. The staff are extremely knowledgable, no matter how obscure your interests may be.
With row upon row of beautiful books, I challenge you to go in and walk away empty handed.