About Us
Petrarch’s Bookshop has existed in Launceston as a general bookshop since 1985, providing exceptional customer service across an ever growing range of books. Although it has been owned and operated by Peter and Rhonda Durkin for most of that time, Marcus Durkin has joined his parents in the business and is now the operational manager of the shop.
The growth of the business has been based on one major ideal – customer service.
Petrarch’s stocks a wide range of book categories, with special emphasis on Tasmaniania, gardening, cooking, architecture, health, art and many more.
Our friendly staff are all avid readers and are happy to recommend a novel, whether it be a new release or a classic from yesteryear. Our fiction categories include crime, fantasy, historical and Australiana as well as bestselling titles.
Our Children’s book section has quadrupled in size in recent years and we are delighted to attract readers from birth to young adult, for both gifts and personal reading.
Our Name
The name Petrarch’s Bookshop was inspired by the Italian poet Petrarca.
Petrarch's Friends
I have friends, whose society is extremely agreeable to me: they are of all ages, and of every country. They have distinguished themselves both in the cabinet and in the field, and obtained high honors for their knowledge of the sciences. It is easy to gain access to them; for they are always at my service, and I admit them to my company, and dismiss them from it, whenever I please. They are never troublesome, but immediately answer every question I ask them. Some relate to me the events of the past ages, while others reveal to me the secrets of nature. Some, by their vivacity, drive away my cares and exhilarate my spirits, while others give fortitude to my mind, and teach me the important lesson, how to restrain my desires and to depend wholly on myself. They open to me, in short the various avenues of all the arts and sciences, and upon their information I safely rely, in all emergencies. In return for all these services, they only ask me to accommodate them with a convenient chamber in some corner of my humble habitation, where they may repose in peace: for these friends are more delighted by the tranquility of retirement, than with the tumults of society.
- Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)