Borders

I found myself at the Borders book store in Albany Mall this afternoon. I wandered around the place looking, in vain, for books that dealt with current affairs. The closest I came were autobiographies by the Mad Butcher and Suzanne Paul. Like Whitcoulls at Glenfield Mall, there appeared to be something missing.

To be sure, there are thousands of books there. The place was chocker with novels of all types: murder mysteries, sci-fi / fantasy, thrillers and "literature". There were picture books, cook books and self-help books. Biographies of minor celebrities abound. You could buy funny cards, CDs and DVDs, too.

But if you wanted any idea of what is going on in the real world, you'd be sadly out of luck.

Borders at Albany Mall doesn't appear to do reality.

They aren't the only book store, but all the others I have seen on the North Shore are similarly devoid of public affairs / current affairs books. Having grown used to Wellington book stores that had all the latest such books, this aspect of life in Auckland is an unhappy one. But it does provide some insight into why so many people I meet here appear to know very little about the background to the major events and forces of recent years that are shaping (and re-shaping) the world around them.