About Us

Just steps from the surf at Avalon Beach, an hour north of Sydney, Bookoccino is a community cultural hub and an international destination. It is a gathering space for ideas, a stage for writers, a meeting place for friends, and a home for readers of every age. Over coffee and cake, stories are discovered, debated and carried home.

When the store opened in 1992 the founders imagined “a bookstore for people who really enjoy books, in every sense of the word” – a space defined by atmosphere, service and the pleasure of browsing.

That spirit defines the store today. Owned by Raymond Bonner a former foreign correspondent for the The New York Times, New Yorker writer and author, Bookoccino encourages curiosity about the world and the ideas shaping it. Our shelves hold more than 10,000 carefully curated titles from literary fiction and classics to politics, history, cookbooks, art, architecture, and a magical children’s collection.

Light-filled and spacious, the store is designed for lingering and discovery. Tuesday morning StoryTime welcomes young book lovers; while Sunday mornings our live music often plays to standing room only.

Our events program have hosted celebrated writers and public thinkers, from Australia and abroad — Geraldine Brooks, Richard Flanagan, Richard Fidler Julia Baird, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Trent Dalton, Lionel Shriver, Michael Robotham, Anna Funder, David Marr, Nick Bryant, Joe Aston and Richard Walsh.

Bookoccino is proudly a computer-free bookstore and café – a small rebellion in favour of thinking, conversation and the simple pleasure of reading. After supporting the Walkley Book Awards in 2025, this year we are proud to partner with the 2026 Sydney Writers’ Festival, continuing our commitment to bringing writers and readers together.

Bookoccino is more than a bookstore. It is one of Australia’s most distinctive independent bookstores, where our charming, literary-loving baristas and booksellers bring people together through books, events, coffee and conversation.