Logical Unsanity was a 24-hour-pay-what-you-can bookshop that opened its doors in 2014 and closed them in April 2023. It was situated in the leafy, green Brisbane suburb of Bardon, an area where timber and tin Queenslanders sit next to multi-million-dollar modernist homes. The mystery of Logical Unsanity is not so much why closed, but how it managed to stay in business for as long as it did.
I mean, the place was a bit of an eyesore.
Wedged between a cafe and a thrift store (that later became a yoga studio), Logical Unsanity was decidedly out of place. Not only did it exist in an area where the median house price is 1.7 million dollars, it popped up in a city notorious for burying the average homeowner in red tape if they want to erect a shed in their own backyard.
And yet, despite these obstacles this literal “book-shed”, draped in a tarpaulin and furnished with a hodgepodge of second-hand shelving units, and thrifted furniture, stood for almost a decade.
Packed with hundreds of pre-loved paperbacks, textbooks and magazines, it was a place where folks could rummage, read and ruminate at any time of the day or night. There was even a guest book where customers could record their visit, write an IOU or leave a heartfelt message of thanks, like the one owner, Yarran L Jenkins, found one morning:
“You have saved a life this night and for that I will be forever in your debt,”
Unknown customer
Source: ABC News, Shelley Lloyd
Articles written about the bookshed play up the whimsical idyll of an open-all-hours house of books. A place where you could take shelter during a summer downpour and quickly find yourself whisked away to a different world via the pages of a good book. And I have to admit, as someone who loves whiling away the hours in secondhand bookstores, it does sound appealing. But, when speaking to the Shelley Lloyd at the ABC, Jenkins warned against getting too misty eyed about the place –
“People like to think of it romantically. So I like to remind them of the dust and silverfish, and heavy boxes”
Source: ABC News, Shelley Lloyd
Source: ABC News: Shelley Lloyd
Lamentably, I only got to visit Logical Unsanity once. I always intended to go back but I never got around to it. I suppose I figured it would always be there, so there was no rush. Then in June of this year, I had a pocket full of change and a list of out-of-print books I was determined to track down, so I decided to make a day of it and head to the bookshed.
It was only when I looked up the address online that I discovered the book shed had permanently closed its roller doors. It was a shame but, in a city where so many businesses had folded during and after Covid, it wasn’t surprising.
I don’t know the details.
Maybe the pay-what-you-can aspect of the store was unviable, maybe property developers made the owners an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Who knows?
What I do know is there will never be anything like the 24-hour book shed in Brisbane ever again. So farewell, Logical Unsanity. You were a unique Brisbane landmark and the city was better for having had you in it.
You will be missed. Silverfish and all.
RESOURCES AND FURTHER READING:
Mr Jenkin’s Bardon 24 Hour Book Shed, by Elisa Shoenberger, 25 July, 2019 published on Bookriot.com
Logical Unsanity 24 Hour Book Shed
Am I Reading Too Much into This? 
That sounds like such a special place, what a shame it couldn’t survive – thanks for sharing
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Yes, I doubt we’ll see anything like it again. Such a bummer. On a positive note there are more community libraries popping up around the city where people can take a book and leave a book. So I guess that’s something 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
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🤞🏼
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