Almo Books and Cafe sits on High Street South in Carterton, combining a cafe with a bookshop whose catalogue runs far deeper than the storefront suggests. The shelves — and the shop's searchable online catalogue — cover New Zealand fiction and non-fiction, general fiction and literature, poetry, history, biography, travel, art and music, alongside practical corners for cooking, gardening, health, business and self-improvement.
Rural life gets real shelf space too: farming, hunting, fishing, equestrian and self-sufficiency/small farming titles make sense in a Wairarapa farming town, while children's books, colouring books, graphic novels, humour, talking books, CDs and DVDs round things out for every age and interest. When you're browsed out, there's stationery, giftware, cards, calendars and diaries, wall charts, puzzles, toys and games, and gift vouchers.
The shop trades online as well as across the counter. The website lets you search by keyword, title, author or ISBN, add titles to a wishlist, and choose Click & Collect on in-stock items; if something's off the shelf, a Notify Me alert tells you when it's back. Ebooks are available through the shop's Kobo link, and the Staff Pics category gathers the team's personal favourites, with a Book Awards & Links page pointing readers toward prize-winning picks.
True to its name, there's a cafe alongside the books. For current opening hours and day-to-day news, check the Contact & Opening Hours page on the website or follow the shop's Facebook page.
On High Street South in Carterton, Almo Books and Cafe does double duty: part neighbourhood cafe, part full-scale bookshop with a catalogue that runs far deeper than the name on the awning suggests. The shop's website — where the entire stock can be searched by keyword, title, author or ISBN — lists dozens of departments, from New Zealand fiction and non-fiction through to graphic novels, talking books and e-readers. It's the reading equivalent of a good country general store: whatever brings you in the door, there's very likely a shelf for it.
Start with the New Zealand shelves. The shop gives NZ fiction and NZ non-fiction their own top-level categories, and the fiction range stretches from historical novels like A Better Place: A Novel of Early New Zealand to contemporary titles such as A Mistake and Addressed To Greta. Crime readers will spot A History of Crime: The Southern Double-Cross, series fans can pick up A Song of Comfortable Chairs from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and bargain hunters will find omnibus editions like A State of Siege & The Rainbirds marked down alongside new releases — Lee and Andrew Child's The Secret (Jack Reacher #28) has been featured on the homepage with a special offer.
Beyond the local section, the department list reads like a map of a whole town's interests. There's general fiction, literature and poetry; history, military and reference; biography, business, health and self-improvement. Cooks get an entire cooking category — think 100 Family Meals, 100 Great Indian Recipes, books on preserves, Christmas dishes and home brewing — and gardeners get their own shelves. Rural Wairarapa life is well served too, with farming, hunting, fishing, equestrian and self-sufficiency/small farming sections sitting alongside home improvement and interior design.
Younger readers aren't an afterthought: there are children's books, colouring books, graphic novels, humour, and a toys-and-games corner, plus CDs, DVDs and talking books for music, movies and long car trips.
The shop has clearly thought about the browse-and-wander crowd. Alongside the books sit stationery, giftware, cards, calendars and diaries, wall charts, puzzles, maps and atlases, and gift vouchers — the practical makings of a birthday or Christmas run. E-reader owners are catered for through an E-readers and Accessories category, and the website links through to Kobo for ebooks, so digital readers can keep the same bookshop in their pocket.
Staff Pics, the shop's staff-picks category, does the useful work of a well-read friend: pointing you at titles the team actually rates. There's also a Book Awards & Links page — a handy signpost to prize lists if you want your next read pre-vetted.
The website works as a real storefront, not just a brochure. In-stock titles can be added to a cart and ordered with Click & Collect; if a book you're after is temporarily off the shelf, a Notify Me button will alert you when it's back, and wishlists let you park ideas for later. New-release features rotate across the homepage, so it's worth a repeat look even if you've ordered before.
True to its name, the business pairs all of this with a cafe — so a browsing trip can easily become a proper outing. For current opening hours, the shop's Contact & Opening Hours page is the place to look, and its Facebook page carries day-to-day updates. Whether you come in for a specific New Zealand novel, a slow-cooker cookbook, a puzzle for a rainy Sunday or simply a coffee and a wander along the shelves, Almo Books and Cafe is set up to send you home with something good.