WHAT?

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

Comments

[RealitySlams]

Seriously. If people don't read in the first place, they're never going to pick up some extra books lying around (printed by another 17k more).

First, establish interest. Besides there are enough books to go around for people who are interested in books and reading.

Knowledge? The internet is the fastest, easiest, surest way of obtaining knowledge on practically anything under the sun.

[Adline]

my goodness, what rubbish! these are supposed to be intelligent solutions?

[Chet]

The poor trees. To feed a nation's thirst for knowledge. And the warehouse space to store the unwanted ones. But the recycling business will benefit from this.

[bibliobibuli]

classic! just get all those schoolteachers writing books. won't we be queuing up to read them!

[Josette]

Publishing and selling more books doesn't mean people will buy them. The books must be interesting and fun to read or I wouldn't go around wasting my money on them.

Actually, I'm not really sure if we are a reading society? Studies show that M'sians read like, 2 books a year or something? But I still see people hanging around at bookstores, sitting on the armchairs for hours with a book in hand.