In the next few weeks we will be sharing many of our favourite reads of 2025. Today, we start with Jenna's visit to RNZ's Culture 101. She chatted with the lovely Perlina Lau about the long book trend of 2025 and named some category favourites. Listen at the link in our bio.

Where did November go? Here are our bestsellers sneaking in before the rush of the Christmas season. 📚

9 to 5 but make it 9 to 9. We were visited by @1newsnz last week to chat Christmas shopping. 🎄

Nate visits Scandinavia for his latest backlist pick, Long Live the Post Horn by Vigdis Hjorth. 'Scandinavia is producing some incredibly exciting writing at the moment - Hanne Orstavik, Balsam Karam, Olga Ravn, Harald Voetman, Jon Fosse and Fine Grabol to name just a few - and it was this book by Norwegian writer Vigdis Hjorth that first made me sit up and take notice. The premise doesn’t necessarily jump off the page; a PR consultant is hired to run a campaign for the Norwegian postal union to fight a vote that would greatly reduce the postal network. It might not sound like scintillating stuff but it's one of the most compelling books I’ve read. Really, it's a book about loneliness and finding human connection, laid out in brilliant prose that starts off cold and gradually peels itself back. Very much a book for the current time as this small vote on the postal union opens up a much greater question- what do our systems value and where does that leave the people within them? I’ve never read anything quite like it.'

Our October collaboration with Bobo Doodles was a HUGE success. Thank you to all of our friends, old & new, who sold us out of these delightful mini prints. We are making A5 art prints of two of Bonnie’s most popular designs: Time Out’s shopfront and Maungawhau Mount Eden. We are taking pre-orders now and will print them in time for the second week of December.  Isn’t this the perfect Christmas gift for a Time Out fan? Pre-order at www.timeout.co.nz.

And just like that, we've reached the end of October. Here are our bestsellers for the month.

You're invited to join Harry Ricketts & Steve Braunias in conversation in our upstairs room, on Friday 7th November. What is happiness in a suddenly unfamiliar world? What happens to us once the old connections spark and disappear? Harry writes of youth, hope, books and writers, and the friendships through which we come to know ourselves new poetry book, Bonfires on the Ice. RSVP to books@timeout.co.nz