CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of our 15th Anniversary competition!

In July we celebrated 15 years of our iconic Sydney store. As we got all nostalgic and looked back on all those years and all those books, we also asked you, our customers, what had been YOUR favourite book found here at Kino. And we were giving away $1500 worth of gift vouchers to one lucky winner and two runners up!

Our First Prize winner was the lovely Rani (pictured above) and her favourite book from Kino was How to Grow a Baby and Push It Out by Clemmie Hooper. Why we loved it? Her response was upfront, honest, to-the-point, and funny to boot! Here’s what she wrote:

“The only maternity book I could find that wasn’t gushy, self-help bullsh*t with photos from 1996. Bought for knocked-up friends as it’s funny and nicely illustrated. Like Frankie magazine for pregnancies.”

When picking up her prize, we asked Rani what books she was going to kick off her great book shopping spree with, with $1000 worth of gift vouchers to spend! Some of the books she’ll be starting off with are:

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
• Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
• The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson

One of our runners up, eight year-old Veronica, picked Chi’s Sweet Home by Konami Kanata because:

“…Chi is a very mysterious kitten and she has the most adventures ever!”

Thank you to everyone who entered and shared with us the books that you have found here on our shelves over the years. We have absolutely loved reading about them all – you have made us smile, made us laugh and chuckle, and you’ve warmed our hearts. Here are some of the other favourite books of yours that you told us about…

“The New Ghost by Robert Hunter. Found it in your Nobrow display on Free Comic Book Day and FELL IN LOVE. It ticks all my boxes: so sweet, so funny, so beautiful. Would never have found it without Kinokuniya!”

“The purchase of Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter has changed my life. I admit I had, and still have an unhealthy obsession with the Hamilton musical, but with this book I was able to lose control over my obsession a little more. Best purchase!!!”

“X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Omnibus! It was my first big comic I purchased, and gave me my guilty love for over-the-top 90’s comics. I still re-read the adventures to this day!”