Jay Lansdown, owner of Constant Reader in Crow's Nest, New South Wales, just north of Sydney, has purchased Pages & Pages Booksellers in Mosman, also a northern Sydney suburb.
Jon and Kate Page, owners of Pages & Pages, put the store up for sale earlier this summer, and planned to close the store if they could not find a buyer by August 30. Now, Lansdown and his team will take over in August and turn Pages & Pages into Constant Reader's second location. Lansdown is president of the Australian Booksellers Association. Jon Page is a former ABA president and will soon become assistant manager of the landmark Dymock's store in Sydney.
Chris and Phil Page originally opened Pages & Pages in 1995, in Sydney's Belrose neighborhood. They moved the store to Mosman in 1999, where it has remained. In 2014, the store was named Best Independent Bookshop at the Australian Book Industry Awards.
Constant Reader, meanwhile, opened in 1979 and has been in its current location since 1989. In 2012, founder Peter Kirby sold the store to then-manager Jay Lansdown.