By Cher Tan
Rob Lloyd’s house is full of books. He’s not sure of the exact number, but he does know two things: there are hundreds of them, and there are less of them than there used to be. Lloyd is the person behind Instagram page bookrunnermelbourne, where he sells books from his own collection.
Rob Lloyd started Book Runner during lockdowns.Credit: Justin McManus
It’s a project he came up with a few months into the pandemic. Although his job as a gas meter-reader allowed him to be outdoors, he would spend his idle time reading, especially as he began to feel restless. “I think I was over a lot of menial and precarious jobs I was doing. It was pretty unstimulating. There wasn’t much purpose, and I wanted to do something I was passionate about and interested in.”
After seeing Canberra-based online bookseller serpentbooks sell used books on Instagram, Lloyd wondered if he could do the same. Having amassed hundreds of books – mostly second-hand—over a lifetime spent reading, he’d arrived at a point where he wanted to not only be a “vessel” for books, but also connect with fellow readers.
“I saw that Serpent was doing it, and I was like, ‘maybe I could do this.’ It hadn’t crossed my mind that Instagram could be a platform for something like this and pay the bills. I couldn’t afford a shopfront, and I didn’t want it to become Abebooks or be an eBay Power Seller or anything like that,” Lloyd says in his friendly drawl.
As an avid book-lover, he found himself dissatisfied with the way many books were being presented and sold on Instagram, believing the platform’s full potential to showcase “the beauty, quirkiness and oddness of different books” was not being fully utilised.
And this was how I came across his Instagram page while idly scrolling one morning. On the site, Lloyd presents individual books for sale in a specific way: showing the front and back covers, as well as the contents page and the first page of the book. Books don’t come with a “if you liked X, then you will like Y” type of message, which is a sentiment that is gaining popularity as social media-driven algorithms begin to dictate tastes online, which often spills over into our day-to-day lives. Instead, bookrunnermelbourne encourages an element of surprise, simulating an experience not unlike bookstore browsing: often, when shoppers don’t know a book or an author but are attracted to the cover or title, they find themselves reading the blurb, and then flipping to the first page to see if the book continues to hold any interest.
“I wanted to make it a bit easier for people to find books, especially when a lot of shops were closed [during the lockdowns]. It was a direct way for me to present a curated selection of books to people,” Lloyd explains.
Since he began the page in June 2020, the independent business has grown through word-of-mouth, amassing 1650 followers at the time of writing. Books often sell within an hour of being posted, and his titles range from music to art to philosophy and to more obscure titles from small publishers as well as classics.
Lloyd began, as he says, “slinging books” from his personal collection, which has now expanded to include finds from op shops and private sales. “I’ll pick up whatever I’m curious or excited about. Whatever is interesting to me. I don’t really worry about it,” he says.
This attitude has resulted in an array of customers, including artists, musicians, writers, academics, students and collectors. Many are based in Melbourne, yet there are others who hail from regional Victoria and interstate. “I’ve got some really loyal international customers, which is humbling and bizarre,” Lloyd says. “Overall it’s a base group of patrons who support what I’m doing.”
Lloyd’s love for books is apparent. Growing up in a small town in Gippsland, his local library was an invaluable source. In 2011, he moved to Melbourne to study social science. “I had no practical experience when I finished,” he recalls. “[I] did a bunch of unskilled jobs—on production lines, in kitchens, and got into a rut with it all. But I’d keep reading to stave off the boredom.”
Beginning with authors such as Kurt Vonnegut and Charles Bukowski as a young adult, he moved on to books by Amiri Baraka and Georges Perec. “Over time, my tastes probably got more avant-garde, a lot more surrealist,” he laughs. “I hope to replicate that kind of exploratory feeling with Book Runner. Try to have some books and writers that people haven’t necessarily heard of; they might find it’s their new favourite writer.”
As the world has reopened, Lloyd has begun to set up shop at small art markets to supplement his online sales. He’s also partnered with alternative bricks-and-mortar stores, such as Rowdy’s record shop in Northcote, where he stocks a selection of music-related titles from his collection. “It’s fun being outside, getting to meet and build connections with other small business owners. It’s also a good opportunity for people to be able to pick things up. Feel them, flick through them, make sure they don’t have that old-moth smell. Make sure they’re not riddled with silverfish,” he adds with a wink.
Through the business, Lloyd has struck up several friendships, including with local writers and zine-makers as well as fellow book lovers: “people you wouldn’t meet otherwise, or might have just been strangers in the same venues.”
Asked if Book Runner is a way to subvert the algorithmic culture many people now find themselves subjected to online, Lloyd agrees. “I love the excitement of discovering new things whether it’s with music, books, film, art. I love the surprise and enthusiasm,” he says.
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