Dubbo’s local bookstore: serving the community for 39 years
IT is with real pleasure that we celebrate 39 years as a bookstore in Dubbo. Being part of the community has been a wonderful, personal and commercial experience as we interact with customers from the community and the whole region – extending from the Great Dividing Range and to the Queensland and South Australian borders.
Over time bookstores have seen and lived through major challenges – the rise of internet trading, the decline of tertiary text book requirements, the electronic readers. My response to our ongoing trading is that those who continue to be our customers recognise that, among other things, the rise of retail giants has more to do with the drive for their financial dominance than local community development and services.
And as in the last 600 years, books certainly play their role for all of us in gaining knowledge and satisfaction in life.
A key and positive attitude conveyed by those shopping with us from places such as Sydney, interstate and elsewhere, is that so many say that “it is wonderful to find such a great bookshop” and they continue by providing opinions on their browsing experience, supported with their purchases.
Being a family-owned bookstore, we respond to the needs of the community and requests for books that reflect the interests of readers. To add to this is the volume of second-hand titles that come to us. That sector came about as book buyers have sought “out of print” books as well as us being able to say more often “yes, we have that title”.
We currently have almost 50,000 books on our shelves.
Back in 1992 a comment from a customer who knew that I had often travelled to USA in my farm machinery days, encouraged a visit to Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon. Our experience since then, and having had discussions with Michael Powell on three visits, it’s clear that listening to customers proves to be a valuable experience!
Apart from books intended for gifts, when a book buyer makes their selection it often reflects their personal interests – and even expands that element.
Some time ago a customer purchased “The River Wars” by Winston Churchill. We discussed that interest – my grandfather served in the British Army in the Nile Valley at the same time as Churchill (in 1895) and as a child I heard much about Churchill (but not the war details). Churchill’s physical experience on the war front a number of times must certainly have made him the real leader he demonstrated during World War II.
Meeting with customers in our bookstore continues to be the element of wonderful interaction. Recently, a long-time visitor asked me how trade was, following the lockdown. Having reassured him that we were still progressing he replied with a quote he had heard from the Landrover Forum – “The continuing presence of bookshops is the only evidence of intelligent life still on the planet.”
A book that has been a major influence for me is Maxwell Maltz’s “Psycho-cybernetics”. Psycho obviously relates to the brain, and “cybernetics” is the technology developed during WWII which corrected the direction of a missile back on target if weather or other influences impacted on it. If applied in business, when one experiences a diversion, the process sets us back on target, and so many readers can relate to a book that has had an impact on life for them.
Just the other day a customer in Narromine phoned to thank us for the arrival of his book which had been ordered by phone. He was impressed because it was only the day before that he had ordered it from us. I mention this to reassure folks that we do have a wide range of books, we can compete with the mega-online businesses, and we mail orders to customers all over Australia each weekday.
During Covid lockdown we have received thousands of second-hand books, many of them as a donation and we then pass the value of those books on to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Over time we have collected photos of authors in our bookstore – among them Jamelle Wells who wrote “Court Reporter”, De Cresppigny who wrote “QF32”, Anthony Albanese “Telling it Straight”, and recently Al Mabin – she joined the Brinkworth cattle drive as a drover in north Queensland and took photos of their drive through the drought country, passing through the local regions of Coonamble, Trangie, Condobolin, and on to the Riverina. Her success with the publication of that book led her to produce others including two entitled “The Grower” – one on crop and vegetable production and the other on livestock. The coverage of these books range across the country.
The opportunity for us to promote authors who live in the region has real value. Pat Clark has written six books for children, Kate Gadsby wrote “Convicts, Capitalists and Corruption”, Bill Stanford’s “Skirmish Hill”, Cathy Colless’ “Diamonds In The Dust”, Michael Nelmes’ “Too Damned Far Out West”, Sandy Thorne’s “My Mate Gidgee”... These are just a few of the very talented authors from our region.
Alisa Callen wrote “Snowy Mountains Cattleman” and Margaret Stevenson wrote “The Covid 19 Pandemic of Fear”. And so many other regional authors have contributed to the wealth and breadth of our bookshelves.
Books influence our lives greatly – and in so many ways. A recent release by Carl Reinecke is “Books That Made Us” and in the novels which he reviews he considers how these captured everyday lives and exceptional dreams, and how they have held up a mirror to the nation. They reflect on the good and the bad, and Australian culture. He discusses how writings by Marcus Clarke, Melissa Lucashenko, Patrick White, Peter Carey, Henry Randell Richardson and others have kept us reading all our lives.
When I think of leadership, Abraham Lincoln immediately comes to mind as the model. He and Thomas Jefferson had a lot to do with the development of the system of government in the United States. With discussions surrounding the best “head of state” model for Australia are currently heating up, it’s worth reading Jim Hayes’ “Australia’s Best Unknown Stories” for some solid background. Hayes steps us through the development of our country’s system of government. Australia’s history, from the separation from British control and the establishment of our Constitution and self-government, and with Edmund Barton being our first Prime Minister, in some ways replicates the moves made in the USA.
Books impact on our lives.
Christianson & Salter wrote “100 Books That Changed the World” and when you read it, it becomes clear that “Gray’s Anatomy”, “Aesop’s Fables”, “King James Bible”, “Rights of Man”, “Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)”, “Lord of the Rings”, “How to Win Friends & Influence People” – and 93 others – have a message that can create a life attitude for us.
Another text compiled by Colin Slater is “100 Children’s Books”. It includes a collection that can inspire young people with quality reading as well as inspiring their thought processes.
Not many booksellers have written about their work experiences but some interesting people have been involved. Well known author George Orwell (his real name was Eric Arthur Blair) worked in Booklovers Corner in Hampstead, UK. Author of “The Diary of a Bookseller” Shaun Bythell uses extracts from Orwell’s text as a forerunner to each month of his diary.
Bythell owns The Bookshop in Wigtown, Southern Scotland, and since buying it when he was 31 years old, it has grown to be the largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland.
I am currently reading his latest book “Confessions of a Bookseller” in which he writes, “The shop is now busier than last year... I think because people have begun to realise that online trade has an impact on high street... Nobody wants to live in a place where shops are closing all around and nothing is moving to fill the void. Even governments have finally begun to recognise that the demise of high street and the questionable tax affairs of online traders are having a deleterious effect on people’s lives.” I certainly agree.
For any business to continue over time, it is a recognition of the community and the operator to have a common initiative – to work effectively. Our staff – Rae, who has been in the business for 20 years, Beverly, for five years, Chris and Mardi – join me in thanking all those book readers who have supported us over time.
My family came to live in Dubbo from out west 58 years ago and it has been a pleasure to live in a location of such support. Thank you all for continuing to join with us to help make Dubbo such wonderful location.