Requiem for a Bookshop
Yesterday afternoon I was out at Christchurch Airport. Now admittedly the terminal has been in upheaval for months as the airport company complete their big revamp, so I’ve become used to change—but I was completely devastated to walk into the domestic concourse and find that the wonderful Christchurch Airport bookshop was gone.
An airport bookshop, I hear you query—aren’t they usually lacklustre and meagre? To which I reply: yes, usually. But not this bookshop. This was a real bookshop with selection and range and staff who—if they weren’t run off their feet—would actually ask me what I was interested in/looking for/liked and would almost always have some suggestions for me to consider. I have bought so many books there over the years: Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (although it was the edition published as Northern Lights); Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Francaise; Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife; Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book; and Cormc McCarthy’s All The Pretty Horses, to name just a few.
And yes, there was a ‘bookshop’ in its place yesterday, but only offering the usual airport fare of magazines, other assorted merchandise and one meagre row of actual books along the back wall. Needless to say, my money remained in my pocket.
I know that some people out there may say: “but you don’t need actual books and bookshops anyway when you could have an e-reader and travel with your library on the plane.”
While I don’t discount the value of this, especially when travelling for a long time, I do think it misses the essential experience of bookshop, which is the tangible reality of being in the same space as all those new possiblilties for book choice. And as the potential purchaser, I don’t have to know what I’m looking for—I can just move from one book to the next since they are physically collected together in that one space. The other aspect of ‘possibility’ about being in a good airport bookshop is having book selection become part of the ‘journey’: having the circumstance and venue of travel encourage trying something new, whether a new author or new genre.
But looking at what is now on offer at Christchurch airport, as I did yesterday—well, I suspect book selection adventure is not an experience I’m likely to have there again, certainly not in the immediate future. 🙁
Haere ra Christchurch airport bookshop: I already miss you.
O!
Over the decades, I bought so many good surprises from that bookshop – I am dismayed to learn it is defunct.
I join you in your taki-aue-
Yes, that is exactly how I felt yesterday. Sometimes I feel I have been recording so much “loss” for Christchurch over the past eight, nearly nine months now since September 4, but particularly since the second earthquake on February 22nd, that surely it must be time for the tide to turn … Surely? I do hope—but when things like this that are not earthquake related at all happen, one cannot help but feel that it is more important than ever to both record and witness the passing of something of value.
Oh, no! I bought a few books there myself over the years. I remember buying three Terry Pratchett books and a Phillipa Gregory book there before traveling to America a few years back. There have been others too.
I’m just so tired of hearing more wonderful things are gone. I guess we can only hope that there will be some exciting replacements to come. I sure hope so 🙁
I think there will be replacements, Wen—but it’s going to take time. And the replacements will likely be different anyway, so even if good new stuff happens, we’ve still lost the old good that we had before. Inevitable … but I still think it’s perfectly valid to mourn the losses.
It’s not as if we have lots of bookshops in Christchurch at the moment either – especially since I tend to avoid Riccarton because of traffic problems.
At least Scorpio is reopening. I would have thought an airport bookshop would have a captive audience, surely lots of people still buy books to read on planes? Maybe when the redevlopment is finished we’ll get a better bookshop back again.
Catherine, I loathe Riccarton and I doubt even Scorpio is going to be enough to get me there regularly. I think there’s going to be a ‘new big’ Whitcoulls in the new terminal: a known quantity given they’re in every other airport, too.
Yes, Riccarton is even worse now than it was – mixing all the niche shops relocated from the city with the giant mall where all the teenage girls hang out is a great recipe for traffic mayhem.
Unfortunately with Eastgate and the Palms malls, St Martins shops and much of Sydenham out of action as well as the city, it is really hard to find good alternatives to Riccarton at the moment.
Online may be my bookshop of choice at the moment – Fishpond or the Nile. Steele Roberts gave me fantastic service when I ordered Siobhan Harvey’s new book from them direct. And then, since massive decluttering is needed around here (I have visions of needing to move out for repairs at some stage), not shopping at all seems quite a good option, too.
I think I will always prefer the tangibility of ‘real world’ shopping to online, including the opportunity to work in a coffee break while maybe reading a book in the sun, but right now, not shopping at all feels preferable to trying to run the gauntlet of the Riccarton affray. I just-don’t-like-it; I never have in all the time I’ve lived in CHC and suspect I never will. Refraining from shopping is great for the wallet though, I have to say. 😉