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Looting the battlefield
Mar. 8th, 2011 08:46 pmI don't know why I'm this tired. Only worked today so far this week and it wasn't bad. Routine, really. Some tax. Some County and Family Court.
Reading various stuff on LJ about interesting women and wishing I was more interesting myself. Must work on that this year. Watch out :-) Oddly cheered by story in the news about a WA man who had to hike 20Km through the Libyan desert to find transport to get himself out, later rescued by the British SAS. He's 59. So there's still time to have adventures.#
I walked through Borders and Angus & Robertson today, ostensibly in search of a book my mother had asked me to look for, something about wild snails eating somebody. At least, some of those words were in the title :-) Borders seems intact, not sure if that store is closing, though a lot of stuff was on 35% off. [Edit - looks like not, the only Borders to close is in NSW] No doubt with A & R. The word there is gutted, and though the store was crowded, it felt very uncomfortable, as though we were looting bodies on a battlefield. Great gaping holes in the shelves and depressed-looking staff. And yes, I ended up taking two books with me. They were on my (mental) wanted list and where was I ever going to get them for that price again?
Yes, I know, online ordering. I do some of that, for sure, but I try to support the local stores. Bookshops are special places.
I rather hope Dymocks manages to hold up. This feeding frenzy has got to hurt them, because people aren't buying their books while Borders and A&R are desperately trying to sell as much as they can. Hopefully the specialist shops won't be hurt, since a lot of their stock isn't duplicated by the bigger stores. An outsider's view anyway; I'm sure those in the know have more info than I do. It's just rather sad, seeing a bookshop go to pieces.
# We are going here by S.M. Stirling's definition that "adventure" means someone else in deep trouble, far away.
Reading various stuff on LJ about interesting women and wishing I was more interesting myself. Must work on that this year. Watch out :-) Oddly cheered by story in the news about a WA man who had to hike 20Km through the Libyan desert to find transport to get himself out, later rescued by the British SAS. He's 59. So there's still time to have adventures.#
I walked through Borders and Angus & Robertson today, ostensibly in search of a book my mother had asked me to look for, something about wild snails eating somebody. At least, some of those words were in the title :-) Borders seems intact, not sure if that store is closing, though a lot of stuff was on 35% off. [Edit - looks like not, the only Borders to close is in NSW] No doubt with A & R. The word there is gutted, and though the store was crowded, it felt very uncomfortable, as though we were looting bodies on a battlefield. Great gaping holes in the shelves and depressed-looking staff. And yes, I ended up taking two books with me. They were on my (mental) wanted list and where was I ever going to get them for that price again?
Yes, I know, online ordering. I do some of that, for sure, but I try to support the local stores. Bookshops are special places.
I rather hope Dymocks manages to hold up. This feeding frenzy has got to hurt them, because people aren't buying their books while Borders and A&R are desperately trying to sell as much as they can. Hopefully the specialist shops won't be hurt, since a lot of their stock isn't duplicated by the bigger stores. An outsider's view anyway; I'm sure those in the know have more info than I do. It's just rather sad, seeing a bookshop go to pieces.
# We are going here by S.M. Stirling's definition that "adventure" means someone else in deep trouble, far away.