Every story has a beginning and an end. Things run their natural course, then decline. News about moves to offer a condensed version of the currently voluminous Dunedin’s University Book Shop has gone down ``like a cup of cold sick’’, according to novelist and poet Emma Neale. She is not alone in her criticism of the decision by the Otago University Students’ Association, the owner of the shop, to shut the landmark store on Great King St in favour of a more ``student-focused, on-campus’’ store in Cumberland St in the coming weeks. Dunedin author Wendy Parkins, the Otago-Southland branch chairperson of the New Zealand Society of Authors, said the move was wrong and failed to recognise the bookshop played an important part in the cultural fabric of the city. Laurence Fearnley said it would be ``a bit of a disaster’’ for Kiwi writers. In a letter to this newspaper yesterday, Dunedin author Philip Temple called the Great King St closure ``nothing less than cultural vandalism’’. He was particularly irked at OUSA’s lack of discussion with other affected parties in the city, accusing it of needing to engage with the wisdom of others if it wants to be taken seriously. And in his Nothing Too Serious column yesterday, Jim Sullivan went all serious and added his views that UBS was ``pretty well the perfect book shop’’ and anyone who had bought a book online had contributed to the ``loss of a great bookstore’’ and bookshops’ more general demise. The students’ association’s decision, and the way it has gone about it, has certainly generated anger across the city and beyond. But is this opprobrium justified or has a bunch of well-read writer-types lost the plot? Given the importance of UBS to Dunedin, a Unesco City of Literature, we believe the upset is reasonable. We also think the lack of consultation is reflective of an organisation unsure about how it will be able to defend such a highly unpopular decision. OUSA president Daniel Leamy told the ODT the association knew the changes would upset the city’s literary community. However, it was a time of tough financial conditions and the OUSA was unable to ``subsidise a general bookshop’’. Textbooks and stationery would still be sold to students through the on-campus store, he said. It’s always a sad day when city institutions close or shrink. As a heritage city, Dunedin feels such losses even more keenly perhaps and has experienced a fair few in recent years. There was the sudden closure of the Fortune Theatre in 2018 and the same fate for Cadbury World at almost the same time, with the shutdown of the adjacent Cadbury factory. Just this last weekend, the Gregg’s coffee factory closed its doors. The death of bookshops was greatly exaggerated more than a decade ago, at the time online sites and e-readers and kindles boomed. Then along came Covid-19, which did have a significant impact on traditional stores, disrupting supply chains and forcing book sales online. That in turn led to a surge in the popularity of reading which, in a nice closing of the circle, led to a mini-boom in bookshops, particularly independent ones with quirky or niche offerings, once the worst of the pandemic passed. Times are clearly still tough for the book industry. But Dunedin cannot afford to lose such a treasure as the existing UBS. Is there anyone out there prepared to write the next chapter in its history? A missed Opportunity? PRIME Minister Christopher Luxon’s blunt rejection of the Opportunity Party as a potential coalition partner after the November election may come back to haunt him. Mr Luxon looked a little flummoxed when asked on Monday if he might do business with the increasingly popular party creeping closer to the 5% threshold to enter Parliament. He ruled it out, saying National was a party of low taxes and would not work with any group proposing more tax. Despite that, Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong says she remains open to working with National and that it might change its tune if Opportunity is needed to form a government. Labour is yet to say who it might work with to form any government. National, under Mr Luxon, does not have the luxury of ruling out too many friends given recent polls.
