Wednesday 25 March 2015

Electric Shadows Bookshop closes

One of Canberra's greatest little institutions, a place where books were loved, where stock was acquired because the proprietors wanted to test the market for the unusual and the challenging, where some fine people got their first jobs or did shifts to tide them over until later success occurred. It was patronised by all and sundry (including at one time a Governor-General who regularly sent in for carefully selected videos and DVDs of the classics and the modern dramas that only ESB had on its shelves) is apparently gone. Not sure what it's a victim of but you can read a  near tear-inducing obituary from the Canberra Times if you click on this link.http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-life/booksellers-and-their-brave-new-world--vale-electric-shadows-bookshop-20150320-1m10j1.html

The Bookshop was close to this family's heart for many years. Founded by Karen Foley and Andrew Pike, it started life in a tiny space in the old Canberra Playhouse before shifting to an out of the way shopfront upstairs in the Boulevard building. Its big break came when the shop next to the Electric Shadows cinema closed and the Bookshop grabbed the space. The synergy of cinema-going and bookshopping helped both venues and for quite some time things boomed. But all things end and the cinema's days were numbered with the planned arrival of a new venue in the Civic car park. The bookshop moved to Braddon then but, as the article says, things continued to change. Life can be a bastard at times

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.