Who reads books in PNG? Village people of course
12 February 2016
PHIL FITZPATRICK
BY all accounts the e-book revolution is running out of steam.
At one stage Amazon, the biggest bookseller in the world, was reporting that its e-books were outselling its hardcover books. As you may know many big publishers put out hardcover books before later transferring the title to paperback.
It’s possible that Amazon may have shot itself in the foot by marketing its Kindle e-book reader only for titles it sells itself. The computer geeks managed to crack this barrier pretty quickly of course.
It may have contributed to the downturn in its e-book sales but other e-book reader brands are also suffering declining sales and it seems that readers are finally coming back to hard copy paper books.
This would be good news for Papua New Guinea if it had its own publishing industry and retail book shops. Unfortunately this is not the case.
That aside, I’ve always thought that paper books would survive in Papua New Guinea, particularly in rural areas.
More than 80% of people in Papua New Guinea live in rural areas, most of them without electricity or other modern facilities.
While those in the cities and nearby areas might spend their evenings in front of television most people don’t have that luxury. All they have is a flickering fire and traditional story tellers, many of whom are older women.
But they do read. In my travels I’ve been to some places well off the beaten track and it is remarkable how many battered books can be seen there.
They get read and passed on until they fall apart. Then they are used to roll cigarettes.
The early missionaries and churches capitalised on this propensity and provided bibles and prayer books in local languages.
It always happens that when a prospecting camp is closed down all the paperbacks the expatriates have brought with them and discarded disappear into the villages.
Nowadays people also buy books in second hand shops in town and take them home where they are passed around.
I’ve come across battered copies of my own books in the most surprising places. The Crocodile Prize anthologies are also slowly creeping into the bush.
Paper books will always have a future in Papua New Guinea no matter what whiz-bang advances are made in other places.
But it will always be a cottage industry. There is no money to be made in publishing and distributing books in Papua New Guinea because people can’t afford them. It will be that way for a long time.
At the end of the day I don’t think it’s a bad thing.
If writers are interested in getting their books out there to be read and not in making lots of money there is a future.
The proper study of mankind is books.
Aldous Huxley [Crome Yellow - (1921)]
Posted by: Bernard Corden | 14 February 2016 at 07:18 PM
Perhaps the subtle intrusion of the anthologies will act as a counter to the destructive tendencies of the much maligned state educational system. A pungent odour of literary incense, a primer in every way.
Posted by: Robin Lillicrapp | 12 February 2016 at 06:32 AM