How many books do you read a year?
I was interviewed by Elizabeth Tai of The Star newspaper, Malaysia on Friday for an article on writing and blogging. She asked for an update on what I’d been doing since my two novels were published (answer: taking a break from serious writing, changing jobs and moving house) and also if I was working on a third novel (answer: yes, very slowly. It’s called “Tianming Traviata” and is an off-beat family drama told in the first person by a feisty, old lady - and is mostly written in Malaysian English). I also talked about Fusion View and the joy of blogging (creating an online community of international writers and artists, including Malaysian writers Lydia Teh and John Ling, to name a few well-known names). She asked what advice I had for Malaysian writers (answer: read widely, keep writing and keep learning. Also, I referred them to my Getting Published series on this blog, which I started when a Malaysian writer asked me how to get published in the UK - although it gives advice to anyone wanting to be published in the UK, I try to focus on issues that would be of particular interest to Malaysian writers).
Elizabeth asked me for my reaction to the statistic that apparently, Malaysians only read two books a year. Well, as a writer, it makes me depressed. But after I came off the phone, I wondered: can that really be true? There are lots of bookshops - and they are big, too - in all the shopping malls in Malaysia. Can they really be doing hardly any business?
I estmate that I read more than 20 books a year, both fiction and non-fiction - although this year, non-fiction seems to have dominated. How many books do you read a year? Let me know, especially if you are based in Malaysia. Can we prove this statistic wrong?
Even if you’re not Malaysian, please try out the poll below (it’s anonymous) and add your comment as well, if you’d like to share more details about what you are reading or if you have views about reading. I am really curious now to get a sense of how much people are reading - all the more interesting in today’s world of video games and home entertainment centres. Are Fusion View visitors more likely to read books or less so?
I’ll review the results in a couple of weeks and report back.
PS. Elizabeth couldn’t confirm when the article on Fusion View would appear in The Star - if you are based in Malaysia, can you keep an eye out for it and let me know when it comes out? I’m curious, naturally, to know what the article says.
- Posted on
Wed, November 22nd, 2006 - Author
Yang-May Ooi - Category
- 4 responses
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November 27th, 2006 at 5:26 am
Will watch out for the article and let you know.
It’s amazing, isn’t it, with all the book sales that are chalked up by bookstores, the reading statistic is still so miserable. As Sharon has pointed out, maybe people are buying books but not reading them. If we conduct a poll on how many books are bought a year, I’m sure it’ll be healthy figure. I’ve taken part in the poll, look forward to the results.
November 30th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
When i was in school in msia, it was before the big bookstores and getting eng lang books were really hard. I read the entire local library by the time I was 17 (I am sure some of those adult novels weren’t very suitable for my young eyes, they were often dusty tomes of classics or old books left over from the English before independence. Oh and in particular I remember - Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction series about “Mars” - with pages missing and words cut out - a kind of immediate censorship). I remember my 12 year old eyes getting quite big! In my local school library, often on the library ticket - it showed I was the first person to take something out since 1940! (and this was the 80’s). Still it made my reading taste very eclectic, which I appreciate now. When we studying for the SPM (O level equivalent I guess) as light reading I would pass around lots of Mills and Boons - and I think everyone’s writing improved from reading any English books, even if it was trashy! My peers from those days, all successful women in their fields, encourage their children to read - their kids are still young, but hopefully it will be more and more mainstream to be reader, as it wasn’t in my day!
December 2nd, 2006 at 8:51 pm
When I was in school in M’sia in the mid 80s when I was 10, I remember being a school librarian and we were only allowed certain shelves. The Bobbsey Twins were off limits because it was perceived to be too difficult?? I had to request special permission to check them out, and yes, they were copyrighted from the 40’s I think. I too was the exception among my peers; I guess I read because my big sister(Pey) read a lot and our mom always read to us. Romance novels were not allowed in school and would be confiscated by the prefects and you were written up for having them! I remember hearing stories of secondary schools throwing their romance book out the classroom windows so they wouldn’t be caught with them. We were after all attending a convent school! :) Even now, my old M’sian school friend said she used to be envious of how many English books I read and she’s trying to read more - like 2 books a year.
Today, as a teacher in a public school in the US, reading is a requirement and a student MUST have a book to read in class at all times because that’s what they get to do when done with all their work or tests. Quite a contrast to my schooldays in Malaysia. I wonder what school age children in Malaysia are expected to do in the English Language classes? Reading English books for pleasure were not a requirement then. I didn’t get to the public library as much as Pey did but I read all the books she left behind, yup, my eyes got large too because I was 12 and reading her romance novels that you had to be 18 to order through the mail. :)
December 17th, 2006 at 6:39 am
the article is in starmag today and very nice it is too
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/12/17/lifebookshelf/16122266&sec=lifebookshelf
i also linked it:
http://thebookaholic.blogspot.com/2006/12/author-blogger.html
the trouble with your poll is that it will only capture those folks who are online and those who drift here because they are interested in books and writing
there are enthusistic readers in malaysia - but then there are the folks in perhaps more rural areas who may not read much.
my malaysian blog readers are mostly from just the klang valley where there is more of a reading culture
is the statistic two books a year right? clearly the powers that be do not want to release the information in the report for scrutiny which i find downright suspicious.
one wonders is it because 1) the information is racially sensitive 2) or that the real statistics are so much worse than this?
i sounded off about the issue here:
http://thebookaholic.blogspot.com/2006/11/newspaper-unclear-on-concept-of-hot.html
and here:
http://thebookaholic.blogspot.com/2006/08/reading-habits-of-malaysians-some.html
BTW, Datuk Ng CEO of MPH reckons malaysians read much more than 2 books a year, and Raman of Silverfish much less