An article about the launching of a locally published book in The Star newspaper yesterday, a local English daily has prompted me to write this blog post. The book, entitled Legacy of Honour by Zainah Anwar tells the story of three prominent and pioneering politicians in Malaysia. It is only a 287-page book and it costs RM 100! As an ardent book lover and a voracious reader, also a book collector, I find it somewhat RIDICULOUS to pay RM 100 for such a thin book. Never mind if the writer took 16 years to do research and write this book.
It is a hard fact that books, be they imported or locally published, their prices in Malaysia are extremely exorbitant to encourage more Malaysians to pick up the reading habit. A normal-sized paperback would cost at least about RM 35 to RM 40, and is usually not within the reach of struggling working-class Malaysians, including yours truly. But, much of the money I have saved over the years have enabled me to invest in good and quality books, usually imported ones but I would also consider good and quality local publications in which I am glad to say I have a few in my collection and am planning to buy more of them if I find them worth doing so.
However, for the not so fortunate Malaysians, many public libraries in the country are doing them a disservice for not upgrading their respective collections, to be moving with the times. That is why I have made the decision to have my own home library. And it is DEFINITELY an EXTREMELY expensive passion to do, building a home library but it is worth every sen invested in doing it.
Maybe it is actually quite costly to publish a book. But published books must be justifiably priced so that they can be more affordable and reachable to a wider population in the country. My guess is that most of the money would go to the publishers, as writers, especially the local ones are actually making peanuts despite putting an indescribable amount of effort, blood, sweat and tears to publish a quality book to appeal readers across the board.
The government especially should put in extra effort to encourage more local writers to publish their literary works in their language(s) of choice to further enhance the publishing industry as well as allowing the masses more choices on which language(s) they would want to choose to read, not just only in the national language. Also focus on published good and quality literary works should be given due emphasis and recognition. This could be some of the ways to encourage a well-read, knowledgeable, critical and analytical thinking society, a crucial step of achieving the status of a developed nation.
Maybe the idea of books being controlled priced items for both locally and foreign published ones could be mooted by the powers-that-be. Thus, this step could make it more affordable to readers across the board to buy books when they desire to do so. And definitely the public libraries needed all the help they can get to update their respective collection so that readers who cannot afford to buy books are able to borrow them, thus, instilling the desire to read in reluctant readers.
Where books are concerned, sometimes focusing on the profits from their sales only would not do justice to people like me. The knowledge acquired from reading good and quality books and not to mention other reading materials as well goes well beyond any amount of profits made from selling them. I say this from my personal experience as the knowledge I have acquired from being an extremely voracious reader is ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS beyond description.
I actually admire your desire to create a "Home Library" of your own in your own loving home. I think you are privileged to be able to do that. I used to collect a lot of fictional story books of yester years but my mother one day told me that it had taken so much of the space in our home that she had asked me to sell them to the "old newspapers" who eventually paid me a handsome sum of money. I actually longed to have my very own library but under strained conditions unable to do so.So I think you are very lucky to be able to if you succeed.
ReplyDeleteYeah, shelving space is always a problem. Thus, for a small price to pay I have to put up with the mess of books all over my room and other parts of the house due to lack of shelving space.
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