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Book prices remain sky high in Australia, agency flourishes and the local industry is a protected species. Parallel Import provisions remain. Yet we still see fewer and fewer book stores. One large shopping centre in Sydney years ago had three specialist bookstores as well as substantial book departments in some other stores. Until recently it was down to one specialist book store and some much reduced book departments in some other stores. The specialist store, QBD, is part of a local chain which is defying trends with its own unique layout, including substantial discounting. With shades of Amazon books, it displays discounted new releases face out and other heavily discounted books on tables in neat rows, face up. Another specialist bookstore, Henry Hartog has opened more recently, and seems to be more a traditional bookstore. When I visited discounts were nowhere on offer. Despite the fact it is in a large shopping centre the store was taking the social/community route, with book readings, events etc. I'd say the jury is still out on this one. The smaller but still very substantial shopping centre in another state which I now frequent has one specialist bookstore, again QBD. The suburb has a traditional shop-front second-hand bookshop on the fringes of the centre of town, which would satisfy all of you who love the smell and the dust and browsing endless shelves. I seldom visit as they don't have ebooks. The mega bookshops once dotted around the suburbs have all gone the way of the dodo, although a handful still exist in the CBD of the big cities.
We still have great libraries. I'm a member and do sometimes visit the main branch, which is in a modern building with a wonderful spacious atrium, tables and chairs and a small cafe. Most of my dealings are of course online borrowing ebooks and audiobooks. The atrium area is a great place to relax and read an ebook whilst enjoying a coffee and snack. If I was so inclined they do have author visits and talks, book clubs, short courses and various other activities. They also have a good local history section in a separate area upstairs. They offer of course paper books, ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, newspapers, movies, music and of course computers for public use.
My feeling is that bookstores are in decline everywhere. I don't see them ever vanishing, but I think they are continually losing customers, and areas which used to support many of them now support only a few. This is a trend. On the other hand, I can only see libraries here becoming more popular. Certainly here they seem to be very well patronised and are providing more and more services. Perhaps things are different in other areas in Australia, or perhaps libraries are faring better here than in the UK. My observation here is that bookstores are declining but libraries are going from strength to strength. I'd be interested to hear what people in the US and other countries think, or even others in Australia whose experience and opinion may differ.
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