Readings first opened in 1969, and it was a partnership of three - Ross Reading, his wife Dorothy Reading, and Peter Reid. At the time, Australia had a very small local publishing industry and most books came from overseas, as Australia was regarded as part of the British Commonwealth via UK publishers.
The Readings owners saw an opportunity to bypass the UK gatekeepers and import these new books directly from wholesalers. In 1976, Ross Reading retired and sold the business to Mark Rubbo, Greg Young and Steve Smith, who owned several record stores in Melbourne. Rubbo, Young and Smith continued running the Carlton shop, and rebadged their record shops as Readings stores as well, adding books to the mix. Business boomed through the 80s and 90s, and Rubbo became managing director of Readings, eventually receiving a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community through fostering an awareness of Australian literature as a bookseller.
