Lifeline Bookfest — Summer

Overview

In summer 2025, the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre is hosting a sales event of most peculiar stock. Strange things they are, full of pages, rampant with words and with covers of the most beautiful colours. You can't charge them, they don't run out of battery, their brightness is unalterable, and they won't smash when you drop them.

Lifeline Bookfest is coming back for another round of vintage bargains between Saturday, January 18–Monday, January 27. It's where you'll find everything from Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks to a bit of cheeky erotica, as well as games, DVDs and puzzles.

If you've been before, you'll know there are warehouse quantities of books for sale – your grade five diary is probably hidden under a copy of Shantaram, and you'll come across at least three copies of Cooking with Days of Our Lives. In fact, over this four-day run, more than one million items will be up for grabs.

As debuted in 2023, this round will also feature more than 10,000 comics, manga and graphic novels.

Prices range from $2.50 to the big bucks, and you'll have plenty to choose from. Whenever Bookfest hits Brisbane, it always brings hundreds of crates of reading materials with it.

You'll still want to bring a trolley and your glasses, obviously, and to clear some space on your shelves at home. And, you'll want to bring your cards, because this Bookfest is cashless. Also, you'll need your own bags, as books won't be wrapped for you this time around.

Images: Bookfest.