A lifelong love of books has certainly paid off for Kat Mulheran. As a young University student – studying, of course, Creative Writing – she started working part-time at Bent Books in Boundary Street.
Eleven years later, she and her partner Beau Taylor own the business, and Kat couldn’t be happier.When she heard that the previous owner Sean McKinnon was thinking of selling, she decided to buy the bookshop herself, with assistance from Beau.
Beau, by they way, is also of a decidely bookish bent. He has worked at Pulp Fiction in the City for some years.
Kat paid tribute to Christy Patton & Ros McConnel for starting this wonderful shop and giving her a job all those years ago, and to Sean Mackinnon for carrying the Bent Books torch for the last 9 years, and all the wonderful folks who have supported Bent Books over the years.
Kat has decided she Will change very little about Bent Books. She’s opened up the door to the courtyard to let in more light, and is considering holding a few events in the courtyard. As Kat says, she was very influential in arranging the layout and look of Bent Books over the years.
Kat was studying creative writing at Uni and, when she got the job with Bent Books, decided that selling books was infinitely more appealing and rewarding than writing them.
She’s a voracious reader with broad tastes. She’s just finished Jeffery Euginides’ Middlesex, and says shelikes reading fiction and learning about history at the same time.
Kat says she is enjoying a good response from customers, who are relieved that the bookshop will continue as before.
Kat loves buying and selling books, and talking about them. She’d love you to drop in for a chat anytime. Kat will help you find rare books or out of print editions. If she can’t find the book you’re looking for, she’ll point you in the right direction.
The WESTENDER welcomes Kat Mulharen to Bent Books and, like her other customers, is relieved that no wholesale changes are planned.
(By the way, aren’t we blessed to have so many bookshops in one suburb, including Eclectica, Avid Reader, Code Words, Open Minds and The Little Bookshop Round The Corner?)
You can folow Bent Books at www.bentbooks.com.au or “Friend” them at https://www.facebook.com/bent.bookerinos?fref=ts