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Ritusmita Biswas takes a look at the changing habits of young readers
An increasing number of young people are reading books. Agrees Devi Kar, eminent educationist and principal of Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata: "My own experience is that young people still read books. We mustn’t forget that even before the invasion of electronic media, there were ‘readers’ and ‘non-readers’. I doubt that the reading section can be lured away from books so easily." She is seconded by award-winning US-based author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni who points out that "book reading is alive and well—and taking on new forms and energy. The Internet, e-books, PDF as well as good old-fashioned, curl-up-in-bed books—all give us more options to incorporate reading into our busy lives". Author Rimi B. Chatterjee opines that change in the form of book reading would for sure enhance the book reading experience and to an extent, it points out that the future of book reading is not bleak. Chatterjee who had uploaded her first novel in a blog and several other sites, including Kindle as an e-book, feels that "electronic excerpts and full texts sharpen people’s desire to own the real thing. If we can preview books in this way, we will spend less on books that will disappoint us, and only buy those which promise us a worthwhile reading experience." As intelligent shopping becomes the order of the day, the reader too shops only for the books he wants to store. Says college student Neerja Sharma: "I love books but can’t afford to buy all. So it’s much more prudent for me to browse and read online and then purchase those which I really want to have." Siddharth Pansari, managing director, Crossword Kolkata, agrees to this and says, "In days to come e-books and other new media will grow, as will conventional books. People have a choice to choose whatever works for them best", adding that the book-reading market is not at all dwindling despite this. "Jeffrey Archer’s books sell more in India than in the UK. Chetan Bhagat’s last book has sold 5 lakh copies. Earlier, bestsellers used to be 10,000 copies but now it is much more," he adds. Enteprenaur Korak Kahali, a tech-enthusiast who travels across the globe, however, feels that despite introduction of a technical element in the experience of book reading , it has remained largely same. "Yes, people are using Amazon Kindle but I see a large number of them reading the good old paperback." Kahali’s last read was the series If God was a Banker, which he read snuggled in his comfortable home over a cuppa of warm coffee. He is not alone. IIM grad Nirav Mahapatra, though not fond of e-books, reluctantly admits that he has to switch over to e-books as he has no time for leisure reading. However, he is all ready to be a part in literary fests which are all the raze now and interact with author/other readers as he feels it is an exercise to stimulate his brain cells and enhance his passion for books. Says artist and photographer Leena Kejriwal, "I think literary festivals definitely help generate a huge amount of interest in books. The fairs have a lovely invigorating buzz and some of the talks are beautiful insights into personal literary endeavours by historians, politicians, economists and others. The literary festivals are like odes to the beauty they add to our lives." Chatterjee, however, is not sure whether literary fests actually promote either books or reading. "They tend to degenerate into an autograph hunters’ paradise," she feels. Whatever be the reason people for attending literary fests, it is not rare to see the young intellectual in a heated discussion with his favourite author or a young couple listening to the lyrics of poetry penned by Faiz Ahmed Faiz as at the Apeejay Literary Festival. Nor is it rare to see a young man with a ‘corporate office look’ engrossed in his Amazon Kindle in a speeding metro. Truly, times have changed, redefining the book reading experience. — TWF
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Akansha
Patra, 7, loves to read her interactive Fisher Price story book. For
tech savvy Nirav Mahapatra, an IIM grad who is a self-proclaimed techie,
book reading is all about buying relevant e-books from Amazon and
reading them on his laptop in his leisure time. Prtayasha Mahani, a New
York-based banker, prefers carrying her Kindle with her, so that she can
read her books on her way to work. Amitabh Mohan, an ad agency
copywriter, is a regular participant in literary fests as he feels the
stimulating discussions and author interactions in such festivals pump
up his adrenalin and propel him to read more books. Though the current
popular notion is that books are not being read anymore, it seems that
there is still a large section of the populace who continue to do so,
albeit in a different fashion. In this essentially audio-visual era,
books are being celebrated like never before. There is a spurt of
literary fests as well as innovations in the form and way a book is
read. So be it using the Amazon Kindle, or attending an interactive
book-reading session at a literary fest or using audiovisual aids to
facilitate and enhance the reading experience, it seems unlikely that
books will go out of fashion soon, even in this digital era.