This week we got to know Mandy Myles, founder of locally-owned, online indie bookshop, Bookety Book Books. Mandy gave us her recommendations for 'self-help' books and books to be stuck on a desert island with.

Bookety Book Books is all about the online store too - snap. Tell us why you chose to start off on the world wide web and how that’s influenced your biz. Any plans to add a little brick and mortar? 

I came up with the concept for Bookety during the first nationwide lockdown in 2020 and then launched in the following August, the uncertain climate at the time really drew me to being online as well as meaning I could do it on the side. I also had a vision for creating a nationwide online community that wasn’t defined by postcodes and bringing the independent bookstore into everyone’s home. Even now that it is full-time biz, being online allows me to work in the hours that suit me, so currently still no plans for bricks and mortar. Although I do daydream of owning a book bus kitted out with liberty wallpaper, pink bookshelves, and popping up around the country.

If you were trapped on a deserted island (and there was no hope in hell of you being saved for at least two to three years, Castaway style), what book would you want there with you? Yes, we are making you choose between your babies. 

I very rarely want to reread books, only because there’s always more that I want to read than I actually can, but Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason hit me in all the right places and I would happily laugh and cry my way through that book over and over again.

We like your style - how would you describe it? A little top-line description for those in the back.

I would describe my personal style as fun, colourful and comfortable (with a heavy lean towards comfort these days). For me fashion is about having fun and throwing the conventional stylist ‘rules’ out the window, fashion is supposed to be about creative expression and showcasing your identity at the end of the day so rules need not apply in my opinion. Dress however you please.

What’s your favorite ‘self-help’ book? And by ‘self-help’, we mean anything that makes you feel better than you did before opening it.

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly is such a brilliant homegrown read. It is so so funny and reminds me of Aotearoa’s answer to Schitts Creek chaotic loveable family dynamic.

Three words to describe yourself?

It’s amazing how stumped I am to answer this question five months into new motherhood. I am sure lots of Mum’s can relate to the complete redefining of yourself that happens in the early months, it’s very easy to feel like you’ve temporarily lost parts of yourself while figuring out who you are in a new role where your whole being revolves around someone else. I realise this answer is much deeper than the question, but for now the simplicity of how to define myself feels a little more complex!

Thank you, Mandy! We loved chatting with you and seeing your in the Eat Your Heart Out Dress with your family in Wanaka! Make sure you follow Bookety Book Books a virtual sanctuary for the book-obsessed. Mandy always offers excellent reviews and recommendations.

hej hej x bookety book books GIVEAWAY

We have teamed up with Bookety Book Books and running an instagram competition together - make sure you are in with a chance to win. We are giving away a book stack from Bookety and a hej hej knit of your choice! Enter here. Comp ends 30 March.

Mandy Wears: Eat Your Heart Out Dress in Indigo

Photo credit: Jason Kelly