Well, hello there.

I am currently a one-person 'team', dreaming of a life where I am sitting in my own bookshop, sorting, cleaning and cataloging books, eventually evolving into some hybrid version of myself and Bernard Black (I like people a bit more than he does, mostly). I’m basically doing that now, just from a home-office. I occasionally hold market stalls in the Bay of Plenty, or pop-up shops (like at Monkfish in Wellington!) so I can connect with keen readers and have some excellent book chats. It truly gives me life when people come up and say “oh what! I’ve been looking for this book for so long and haven’t been able to find it anywhere!”. That is what I’m here for.  

Books have always been an integral part of my life. I love diving into other worlds, absorbing the characters within, waiting for the day magic is revealed to be real. I love the way reading one book can change the course of your life, or even just spark an interest in something new. Alain de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy launched me into an obsession with philosophers. Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo gave me a sense of adventure, and Frank Herbert's Dune gave me a love for science-fiction. Molly Drake wrote some beautiful poetry, now compiled in The Tide's Magnificence, which makes me think of my wonderful mother who we lost to cancer. Wilding by Isabella Tree has convinced me that we should all get rid of our neat lawns and just plant as many native trees as is humanly possible.

The best book I have (re)read recently is The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. I’m a sucker for a bildungsroman, and this is the ultimate of the style, as well as one of the best high fantasy books I’ve ever read. Le Guin is generally known for being a sci-fi wizard (and I’m a huge sci-fi fan, please see our excellent range of 70’s and 80’s sci-fi paperbacks, the true treasures of secondhand bookselling, in my opinion), but the Earthsea series is a beautiful must-read for anyone interested in an excellent fantasy world built by one of the best writers of our time.

One of my favourite things about secondhand bookstores is browsing and stumbling across something you would never be able to find elsewhere. That is my ultimate goal for Green House Books - to absolutely delight someone with a book.

As an addendum, I also have a great love of plants and growing food. The name  "Green House Books" came to me while watching an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (completely out of nowhere), and the name is meant to combine my love of plants and books.

Well done, you've made it this far, the self-promoting drivel is done. Go treat yo'self to a book!

- Halena