Of books and readership
Books bring joy and cheer to everyone – you, me and also to kids we have. This we saw recently also when getting them books for the new session in schools. Most families were seen busy bringing home books and covering them in brown with a neat and clean label pasted on it to declare its proud ownership. That is why, they say in most of the seminars on books and readership that we have to catch them young!
If we find such an enthusiasm to start the year with right from school-going children to parents and even grand parents for the books, how could the readership, as such, be dwindling in this world? You just got to see the glow in the eyes and cheers in the face of one, be he or she young or old, when one gets the book of his/her choice or the one he /she had been looking for since long to hold it in his hands and possess. It is the matter to make books readily available if the readership i0s not to wane and dwindle. This very purpose makes a bookseller aglow opening bundles of new arrivals just received. It brings him not only the joy of bringing it home into his showroom for some avid acquisitive reader but also the satisfaction he feels handing over the long awaited title. His purpose to keep on a reader’s interest serves best by making it available readily and easily. The fad for books, therefore, never fades out though we may people faddy about it to see it fading away.
“You can judge a town by the bookshops it has” as someone said. With Gangtok coming of age, latest books are also available here. Like I do not visit market for all my needs, but get someone’s help to get them - a book could also be obtained as well sending someone or enquiring and placing order over phone or even online as recently saw the ad in a local news-daily for a bookshop located in the national capital. If the title is the one you were dying for since long, one can well afford the hassles and to pay extra for freight / courier / postage and bank charges over and above the price of the book in offer. This is the price one has to pay for the readership! If locally available, you would save time and money both. So, check once here as well.
Have you seen that vernacular monthly Bhasker doing rounds in town of late? Yes, it is trying popularizing science through its write-ups in lighter vein. It is catching up fast as well since I happened to see a top ranking bureaucrat showing me this brilliantly produced work with words of praise as he did not know the person who brought him personally to present it. Its recent issue laments on the plight of the Nepali Literary Magazine (NLM), all in lighter vein of course, presently with fever in torturing 104°F finds the Editor (himself in the like of many of his clan in the NLM world) excelling ever since the beginning for ages towards the downfall in the peak at climax, people forget even to laugh seeing the crying of such a magazine! The Editor of a NLM, who again terms himself, is a writer, its publisher + proof reader + layout designer + binder + distributor + postman + marketing manager + accountant + public relations officer + storekeeper + clerk + cashier + advertising expert, etc, etc. endlessly rolled into one. Thus a wonderful creature he is – all rolled into one.
He has a different world altogether, a distinct identity of himself for he is a very special species in this world. But indomitable and very smart it cannot be that an ordinary species. They are like the moth that dares burning candle to sacrifice itself. Yes, they are the moths dedicated for the cause of literature. For them earning fortune out of NLM is just like reaching for the moon but for the rest the declining trend in readership may seriously affect the identity itself of the language and community. We are the most community based people which he later informs in another paragraph and reminds us in yet another that it is the attitude that makes the difference with Reader’s Digest selling 4,00,000 copies in a month (and to add it has 48 editions in 19 languages worldwide) losing grounds as its ramifications are deep-rooted in our society. It may not make a much of the difference for periodicals in English or Hindi like Outlook, India Today, Sarita, Mukta, Kadambini, etc., but if it is for a Nepali world, it surely would harm us if the trend continues further downward like this. All may laugh at on this fate, but one cannot help. Jokes are like that and jokes are always a truth and facts of life as well, he puts it so well.
A reader for such a periodical is itself a vanishing species. So, L K Rai deserves a pat on the back for this well put exercise rather a bold experiment for an eye-opener. Himself a writer of books being a scientist dedicated to the nature in Sikkim-Darjeeling region working in the G B Pant Institute for Himalayan Environment and Development - Sikkim chapter for over a decade and a half now, he has co-authored for works on trees and medicinal plants here – both very useful resource books for reference. To know more, you have to get a copy of this monthly Bhasker (which means Sun and also, Fire and Gold but its masthead shows it in or out of partial eclipse). Venturing out of friends’ circle where this monthly was earlier in limited circulation and it is now for us to go through so as to see and believe him. If you liked the monthly and want to subscribe it too, you have to wait for the next issue that comes with the problem of providing a subscription-form solved.
Some find news-weeklies here serving no purpose other than that of its editor’s own. Yet we have the one that is not only the longest surviving and serving its own class and category of readers but also having a considerable readership extended far beyond even to far off North Eastern States. It is the Wichar weekly in its 25th year of publication with the editor Subhash Deepak over-running all the hurdles as lamented above. Following its footsteps is a newcomer Bhanuraj Thapa’s Rhenock (Purva) from my home town that just completed a year to thank all its readers and well-wishers.
Speaking of periodicals, we have another again in vernacular a quarterly forum for the entire North-East Himalayan region in vibrant colours like any of the popular ones for literature, news and views, Divya Bharati edited and published by G.P. Sharma “Anath” a regular columnist with his satirical Anathko Diary in the last page of a local news-daily Hamro Prajashakti and editor of the weekly Swatantra Samachar. This needs again not only our commendation to the entire enterprising team for such a bold but well trodden step. It deserves our support by buying a copy regularly, even by subscribing to it.
To start the year, we had a hopeful and fair dose of articles Catscanned with 60+4 pages interspersed profusely with advertisements and in colours brilliantly brought out by a team of six who need no introduction for their work now known to us and they have promised of its online edition too soon. It was a grab for Rs. 30/- and by the February end all its copies vanished from stalls finding place in homes far and wide. Now the second issue is also out on the stands to check if it improved or not!
Immediately to follow and to everyone’s joy was from the house of Now! Team with articles and photographs Now! Focus Sikkim Matters all in black and white Looking ahead all minus dose of advertisements in their 76+4 pages for Rs. 50/-. Seeking Nepali Readers with two others was an eye opener to those who concerned and brain feeding to those who are comfortable through reading in English!
Coming back to books – though we know that we do not keep a count of those produced in a year but we also know it very well that we have aplenty here with five releases in a single day as seen on the World Poetry Day recently, though one research-worker from Nagari in the neighbouring Darjeeling hills mentions me that they had a count for their own with 19 altogether during 2005.
As for the latest in vernacular we have one crammed into 128+6 pages in smaller size font to serve more for less at just Rs.50/- a piece in hardcover to suit your pocket and fit in cosily as well. Titled Jiddi Balak (meaning ‘stubborn child’ is but also for grown-up kids) 1500 copies are made available abundantly in one go. With poems of the prolific young and energetic Bhim Thatal, hitting a century since he penned his first in1989 till recently in February, this book is also advertised well in search of readership perhaps. It is encouraging to find him instead already gathered much praise from literary luminaries to its backing to end.
Like haunting melodies, writings of the past get alive in Dhumil Prishthharu- Anusandhanatmak Granth by master story teller Gupta Pradhan with reprints of books that took and shook the hills in pre-Chandrika era during 1867-1918 AD. Limited copies available at Rachna and with the author in Darjeeling are for those rare breeds who stake claims in Nepali literature for serious readings.
If one says Sikkim does not come out with excellence, you have to see to believe this in the shape and size of 9¼” x 12¾” weighing solid 1.70kg hardcover 100 Sikkim Himalayan Orchids by Mohan Pradhan that comes with cultivation guide for each of 100 species / 51 genera in 232 pages in art paper with 120 stunning photographs, 100 full page illustrations & individual field maps. You have to pay a price for that, of course and it is sold at Rs. 2,400/- a piece -worth paying and possessing outright!
Above account is itself well indicative of the refreshing days ahead. Who says we do not read or write even if we do not keep a count of them each year passing by?
So, it is brewing up surely and definitely for warmer cup of coffee or tea by next winter, let us do hope so!
R S Shresta
If we find such an enthusiasm to start the year with right from school-going children to parents and even grand parents for the books, how could the readership, as such, be dwindling in this world? You just got to see the glow in the eyes and cheers in the face of one, be he or she young or old, when one gets the book of his/her choice or the one he /she had been looking for since long to hold it in his hands and possess. It is the matter to make books readily available if the readership i0s not to wane and dwindle. This very purpose makes a bookseller aglow opening bundles of new arrivals just received. It brings him not only the joy of bringing it home into his showroom for some avid acquisitive reader but also the satisfaction he feels handing over the long awaited title. His purpose to keep on a reader’s interest serves best by making it available readily and easily. The fad for books, therefore, never fades out though we may people faddy about it to see it fading away.
“You can judge a town by the bookshops it has” as someone said. With Gangtok coming of age, latest books are also available here. Like I do not visit market for all my needs, but get someone’s help to get them - a book could also be obtained as well sending someone or enquiring and placing order over phone or even online as recently saw the ad in a local news-daily for a bookshop located in the national capital. If the title is the one you were dying for since long, one can well afford the hassles and to pay extra for freight / courier / postage and bank charges over and above the price of the book in offer. This is the price one has to pay for the readership! If locally available, you would save time and money both. So, check once here as well.
Have you seen that vernacular monthly Bhasker doing rounds in town of late? Yes, it is trying popularizing science through its write-ups in lighter vein. It is catching up fast as well since I happened to see a top ranking bureaucrat showing me this brilliantly produced work with words of praise as he did not know the person who brought him personally to present it. Its recent issue laments on the plight of the Nepali Literary Magazine (NLM), all in lighter vein of course, presently with fever in torturing 104°F finds the Editor (himself in the like of many of his clan in the NLM world) excelling ever since the beginning for ages towards the downfall in the peak at climax, people forget even to laugh seeing the crying of such a magazine! The Editor of a NLM, who again terms himself, is a writer, its publisher + proof reader + layout designer + binder + distributor + postman + marketing manager + accountant + public relations officer + storekeeper + clerk + cashier + advertising expert, etc, etc. endlessly rolled into one. Thus a wonderful creature he is – all rolled into one.
He has a different world altogether, a distinct identity of himself for he is a very special species in this world. But indomitable and very smart it cannot be that an ordinary species. They are like the moth that dares burning candle to sacrifice itself. Yes, they are the moths dedicated for the cause of literature. For them earning fortune out of NLM is just like reaching for the moon but for the rest the declining trend in readership may seriously affect the identity itself of the language and community. We are the most community based people which he later informs in another paragraph and reminds us in yet another that it is the attitude that makes the difference with Reader’s Digest selling 4,00,000 copies in a month (and to add it has 48 editions in 19 languages worldwide) losing grounds as its ramifications are deep-rooted in our society. It may not make a much of the difference for periodicals in English or Hindi like Outlook, India Today, Sarita, Mukta, Kadambini, etc., but if it is for a Nepali world, it surely would harm us if the trend continues further downward like this. All may laugh at on this fate, but one cannot help. Jokes are like that and jokes are always a truth and facts of life as well, he puts it so well.
A reader for such a periodical is itself a vanishing species. So, L K Rai deserves a pat on the back for this well put exercise rather a bold experiment for an eye-opener. Himself a writer of books being a scientist dedicated to the nature in Sikkim-Darjeeling region working in the G B Pant Institute for Himalayan Environment and Development - Sikkim chapter for over a decade and a half now, he has co-authored for works on trees and medicinal plants here – both very useful resource books for reference. To know more, you have to get a copy of this monthly Bhasker (which means Sun and also, Fire and Gold but its masthead shows it in or out of partial eclipse). Venturing out of friends’ circle where this monthly was earlier in limited circulation and it is now for us to go through so as to see and believe him. If you liked the monthly and want to subscribe it too, you have to wait for the next issue that comes with the problem of providing a subscription-form solved.
Some find news-weeklies here serving no purpose other than that of its editor’s own. Yet we have the one that is not only the longest surviving and serving its own class and category of readers but also having a considerable readership extended far beyond even to far off North Eastern States. It is the Wichar weekly in its 25th year of publication with the editor Subhash Deepak over-running all the hurdles as lamented above. Following its footsteps is a newcomer Bhanuraj Thapa’s Rhenock (Purva) from my home town that just completed a year to thank all its readers and well-wishers.
Speaking of periodicals, we have another again in vernacular a quarterly forum for the entire North-East Himalayan region in vibrant colours like any of the popular ones for literature, news and views, Divya Bharati edited and published by G.P. Sharma “Anath” a regular columnist with his satirical Anathko Diary in the last page of a local news-daily Hamro Prajashakti and editor of the weekly Swatantra Samachar. This needs again not only our commendation to the entire enterprising team for such a bold but well trodden step. It deserves our support by buying a copy regularly, even by subscribing to it.
To start the year, we had a hopeful and fair dose of articles Catscanned with 60+4 pages interspersed profusely with advertisements and in colours brilliantly brought out by a team of six who need no introduction for their work now known to us and they have promised of its online edition too soon. It was a grab for Rs. 30/- and by the February end all its copies vanished from stalls finding place in homes far and wide. Now the second issue is also out on the stands to check if it improved or not!
Immediately to follow and to everyone’s joy was from the house of Now! Team with articles and photographs Now! Focus Sikkim Matters all in black and white Looking ahead all minus dose of advertisements in their 76+4 pages for Rs. 50/-. Seeking Nepali Readers with two others was an eye opener to those who concerned and brain feeding to those who are comfortable through reading in English!
Coming back to books – though we know that we do not keep a count of those produced in a year but we also know it very well that we have aplenty here with five releases in a single day as seen on the World Poetry Day recently, though one research-worker from Nagari in the neighbouring Darjeeling hills mentions me that they had a count for their own with 19 altogether during 2005.
As for the latest in vernacular we have one crammed into 128+6 pages in smaller size font to serve more for less at just Rs.50/- a piece in hardcover to suit your pocket and fit in cosily as well. Titled Jiddi Balak (meaning ‘stubborn child’ is but also for grown-up kids) 1500 copies are made available abundantly in one go. With poems of the prolific young and energetic Bhim Thatal, hitting a century since he penned his first in1989 till recently in February, this book is also advertised well in search of readership perhaps. It is encouraging to find him instead already gathered much praise from literary luminaries to its backing to end.
Like haunting melodies, writings of the past get alive in Dhumil Prishthharu- Anusandhanatmak Granth by master story teller Gupta Pradhan with reprints of books that took and shook the hills in pre-Chandrika era during 1867-1918 AD. Limited copies available at Rachna and with the author in Darjeeling are for those rare breeds who stake claims in Nepali literature for serious readings.
If one says Sikkim does not come out with excellence, you have to see to believe this in the shape and size of 9¼” x 12¾” weighing solid 1.70kg hardcover 100 Sikkim Himalayan Orchids by Mohan Pradhan that comes with cultivation guide for each of 100 species / 51 genera in 232 pages in art paper with 120 stunning photographs, 100 full page illustrations & individual field maps. You have to pay a price for that, of course and it is sold at Rs. 2,400/- a piece -worth paying and possessing outright!
Above account is itself well indicative of the refreshing days ahead. Who says we do not read or write even if we do not keep a count of them each year passing by?
So, it is brewing up surely and definitely for warmer cup of coffee or tea by next winter, let us do hope so!
R S Shresta
posted by Rachna Books - bookshop in Gangtok @ 1:42 AM
2 Comments:
At 1:54 AM,
Anonymous said…
This is a really good article about dwindling readership all over the world. There can be a number of reason for it, as you mentioned, but another reason could be the instant gratification that Internet provides to the kids. When you read a book, it makes you imagine, the characters, the places (you may have never visited), the atmosphere etc etc. But with Internet at your finger tips, people can just find everything about the book and its characters by reading reviews and watching the places visually.
I live in Canada and this is a big problem here too. A number of efforts are being taken by local people and Governement to increase the readership. One obvious way is to have good quality bookstores in towns. There is a town near my city called, Sidney. Its a very small town of few 1000 people but it is known all over the world for its book-stores. These are not big-company type bookstores but small bookstores that capture the essence of the west coast. A good store should always reflect local culture to attract people as you mentioned in your article too.
Bookstores here do variety of things to attract more readers. They have book-festivals for kids, older people, younger people etc. They have book-festivals on themes like in your case it could be on Nepali-culture or books written about Sikkim or by local people.
Also, though having a good library in town may look like a bad business prospect, it actually has an opposite effect. A good library makes people to buy good books.
After reading your article its obvious that you are very passionate about promoting and increasing readership among people. It's the best legacy we can pass onto next generation. It's people like yourself, Sir, that has provided me inspiration to read good books.
At 9:09 AM,
MockingBird said…
This must be the longest, biggest and baddest writer's block in the history of blogging. Update, dude!
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