The end of an era

Are we going to have any good bookstores left in Australia?

I read in The Age today that 16 more Borders bookstores in Australia are going to close, in addition to the other closures already announced. Bye, bye Camberwell and South Yarra Borders; it was nice knowing you, I always had a good time browsing and often purchasing your wares.

There was also the news last week that another 12 Angus & Robertson stores were closing; including my old haunt; Chadstone.

Sure, it's been a long time since I was in the book game (2004 was when I last worked for A&R), but it was such a significant part of my life for a number of years... it's really sad to see the company and particularly my old store fall apart. Such is life, I guess.

I have read a lot of interesting articles, blog posts and the like about the book industry in Australia; what should happen, what should have happened, whose fault it all is, is it the fault of cheap online stores... and the list goes on. One engaging point of view comes from an author, talking about how bad she feels for selling her own book for it's RRP in her own shop! That sounds a little bit weird doesn't it. But that's how she feels. You can have a read of that post here; it's from Pip of Meet Me at Mike's fame.

I don't know what the answer is, but I sure will be one sad book lover if we end up with no good bookstores in this country, Maybe that's being melodramatic; we still have lots of great independent stores and of course we still have Readings in Melbourne. But what about Shepparton, Mount Gambier and places like that. I guess they have libraries they can visit; but I still think it's pretty sad that they won't have a local bookstore anymore.

Meanwhile, I'm seriously loving my local library at the moment. Maybe that's why the book industry has fallen apart; I have seriously cut back on my book purchasing over the last couple of years. 

Hmmm...