Where do you Buy Your Cookbooks From?
The demise of Booktopia and the Struggle to Shop Small - Friday Food Chat with Kath
A week or so ago, my Instagram feed was full of stories about the demise of Booktopia.
For those outside Australia, Booktopia is (was?!) an Australian based online bookstore (maybe similar to the late Book Depository), which has recently gone into administration. The stories are that book orders are not being fulfilled and customers are losing money. This ABC article was also helpful in understanding wider publishing and book selling trends in relation to issues faced by Booktopia.
I have been a customer of Booktopia for quite a few years. I preferred being able to buy from an Australian based business, that seemed to be competitive on price and had a good range of books. In the last 2-3 years I did find Booktopia less competitive on price, and often slow to fulfil orders (even when it appeared the book was in stock).
Being on a low income means, as much as I would love to always support local or independent bookstores, it is not feasible for me to do so every time I am shopping for a book. Booktopia felt like a decent middle ground in this context, I was supporting an Australian business that was all about books.
The prices large businesses like Amazon or Big W are able to offer, apparently are done deliberately to undermine the traditional bookstores and take the market away from small bookshops.
As much as buying a book (at a price that is sometimes considerably) cheaper than a traditional bookstore or similar is extremely tempting when on a lower income and other living/medical etc costs seem to continually rise, it makes the option to make a more ethical choice feel harder.
As much as I think many of us would like to ideally place ethics, morals and supporting small at the forefront of our choices as consumers, money is unfortunately a big part of the decision. I think there are bigger issues at play regarding capitalism and consumerism and their impacts on our world and communities that we each need to grapple with, but how do we each come to a place we are content with when it comes to our book buying habits?
I am personally trying to make even more considered decisions than I previously have been, and will endeavour to support smaller or independent bookshops when I can. I am going to try to avoid buying books from Amazon or Big W (and the like), as I don’t want to be part of the demise of small bookshops at the profit of big companies who don’t seem to really care about creativity, art, authors or sometimes even their customers.
While we may yet see the saviour of Booktopia yet, I have done my best to remove all links to books on Booktopia from my blog as I would hate anyone to order from them and never receive what they bought. Articles I’ve read say orders are not being fulfilled, but you’d never know that going onto Booktopia’s website.
Next week I will be sharing my Cookbooks Worth Waiting for List for the second half of this year, and I will refrain from adding links to each book so you can have a search yourself and find where suits you best to buy/browse if you choose to do so.
I’d love to know how you make decisions about where to buy books and cookbooks?
Do you try to shop small or do you find the convenience and affordability of the bigger online/in store retailers more compelling? Drop your thoughts in the comments, and let me know your favourite place to buy books - maybe we can all find some new favourites!
Check out more recipes over on the paid version of this newsletter feat. A Ginger Sponge Cake, Salmon Herbed Pikelets and A Caramel Ginger Pudding. See the whole archive here and sign up to support my work and get it all straight to your inbox or Substack feed!
Homemade Berry Jam
I seem to have a large-ish amount of berries in the freezer so I am planning on making some berry jam soon! Here is the recipe I use. I would recommend using jam sugar (or even half jam sugar half white sugar) to really give your jam a nudge to set. Plus if you happen to have any red or white currants, they add lots of pectin and a nice tart flavour too.
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Oh this is a really difficult decision to make! I only used booktopia a few times but found that they were way too slow to dispatch books that were in stock even before the current issues. I’m lucky that there are a few good bookstores near me but admit that I do buy most new releases at BigW. I don’t know how they manage to offer such low prices! I absolutely love the cookbook section of the Dymocks in Sydney and try to devote some time to browse whenever I am visiting (and some pocket money!).
I was a sometimes user of Booktopia - their service was always a bit hit and miss. I do have a back order with them but I doubt I will see either the book or my money! We are fortunate to have a couple of really good independent bookstores in Hobart which I try to support but they don’t always have what I’m chasing and it’s a good hour away so as much as I prefer not to use them, Amazon is generally cheaper and reliable.