Dymocks

Oh Dymocks, when will you learn not to be so expensive? When will you learn to stock more interesting books? Why can I not buy the works of Chuck Klosterman or Bill Simmons in your store? Especially when you have Snooki’s book piled five deep on the front table. This particular Dymocks does have a lot of books. I assume they’re all readable and not movie prop books. But there aren’t a lot of new books, if you know what I mean. It’s actually alarmingly hard to walk in and purchase something that is new overseas. Expect at least a month’s lag.
The traditional brick and mortar big Australian bookstore is slowly dying and I say. .. good. On behalf of all the trees out there, I am excited. I’ll be blunt: being saddled with a giftcard to a store like this is like being giving a lion a tour of the zoo from the inside and then asking him what he thought. «No,» he’ll say, «it’s not for me. I know there’s fresher meat out there. And I like chasing it down.» You walk in to redeem your gift and quickly realise that you probably won’t be able to fit two books under the $ 50 gift card, not without paying extra. And then you’ll do the sums and realise how much you could have bought online for that price. Let’s be honest: there aren’t books in your house waiting to be read while you await your overseas delivery? Exactly.

Dymocks at Broadway Shopping Centre is Massive. The store’s entrance doesn’t provide any hint to the actual size of the store.
As always the latest releases are located on the front wall of the store and the billing counter is on the opposite side. But the fun begins, when you delve deeper into the store. Beyond the gift cards section a whole section of west fields is taken up by Dymocks. There are countless books and magazines.
The aisles are really wide and browsing around the bookshop, feels like you’re in a cosy library. The various sections are clearly marked for easy identification. I particularly liked the special sections they had for SBS and ABC publications. Made finding my Letters and Numbers Book easy.
The books are neatly arranged and stacked. I don’t know if bookshops are a dying breed or not, but what I do know is that browsing around a bookshop is a great past time and there is no digital equivalent.