A college student who interviewed me for a paper she's writing sent me the link to the article I've reproduced below.
My mind is boggled and my flabber gasted.
Have highlighted my favourite bits. Oh you have to laugh ...
From The Star, 5th April 2009
Malaysia needs to publish a lot more books
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has to publish 27,000 book titles for general
reading annually to become a knowledgeable, developed nation and be on
par with other developed countries, Malaysian Book Contractors
Association president Hasan Hamzah said.
He said that in
countries like Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden and Germany, the
ratio was 1,000 book titles to one million population.
“Hence,
Malaysia has to publish 27,000 book titles for its 27 million
population a year, ” he said, adding that such an effort would require
an allocation of about RM300mil.
Hasan said Malaysia currently
published only 10,000 book titles every year, which is still very far
behind from that in other developed countries.
Most of the books
found in Malaysia were imported ones, despite the country having many
local intellectuals, including about 350,000 teachers and more than
40,000 lecturers or professors, who were capable of producing books for
general reading, he added.
However, he said it was not because there were not many locally-published books that reading was not a habit among Malaysians.
“Actually, our society loves knowledge and they like to read. It is because the books are expensive to buy,” he added.
Hasan said that for a book to be sold cheap, a publisher had to print at least 3,000 copies for each book title a year.
There
would be an increase in demand for general books with support from the
government through provision of special allocations for publication of
books for general reading, he added. -- Bernama
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