Never far from books!
Books are revered and books are important but it is only recently in Turkey that reading for pleasure has becoming more wide spread and as a result the book business is booming. I guess it is tied to economic prosperity; countries that are growing more affluent tend to read more, book sales in Brazil are on the increase as the economy grows there and the same is true in Turkey.
It’s Frankfurt Book Fair this week, the biggest book trade exhibition in the world, and Turkey will be there with 3000 titles from 200 houses, showcasing the Turkish culture and literary oeuvre. In the Turkish pavilion 17 publishing houses will be selling foreign rights to their books and striking deals that will send the words of Turkish authors out into the big wide world. Good luck to every single one of them!
All book news is interesting to me, and this week I read an article that suggested that we Brits have read maybe 70% of the books on our shelves, the rest are bought for the purposes of looking more literate than we really are. I can’t imagine that, because to me, a lingering look along my book shelves is like watching a trailer for the film of my life and I’ve read every single one of my books, normally several times. Okay, apart from one, The Bonfire of the Vanities, I just couldn’t get into that.
I don’t have book shelves anymore, I have a loft in Wales full of books and assorted windowsills, tables, chairs and any other flat surface here in Turkey for those books I cannot bear to be parted from.
Books are my friends, I keep them nearby and I’m normally reading several at once. Currently close on the bedside table are the following.
Clive James – The Blaze of Obscurity
Neil Gaiman – Anansi Boys
Dylan Thomas – Miscellany One
Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman – Good Omens
M M Kaye – The Far Pavilions
Marion Zimmer Bradley – Mists of Avalon (seriously foxed, in fact downright Evil’d)
That’s just one bedside table, I have a bit of a tendency to bedroom hop depending on the weather and the other bedrooms are book stacked too – Peter Mayle is hogging the right hand side of the blue bedroom and Robert Heinlein is lurking on the left hand side, very unlikely bedfellows!
One minus for the Kindle generation is they won’t have that rag tag, much loved, physical pile of memories in their lives that those of us brought up on paper books have. No doubt they will get just as sentimental about the reader itself!
Amazon really should seriously consider bringing the Kindle to Turkey; right now if you are registered on Amazon in the UK and have a UK credit card you can buy the Kindle and books for it, but if you have a Turkish credit card you’re sent away with a cyber flea in your ear.
Amazon may well be the second largest retailer in the world but a new market is a good thing and Turkey is so ready for the Kindle. This is a country where the book business is booming and all new technology is worshipped and automatically adopted as “bound to be brilliant!” Take note Amazon!
Coming soon – more literary type news 🙂
Enjoy Anansi Boys. I did. It did the rounds in our office back in the UK.
Yes I’ve read all Neil’s books as soon as they come out, can’t believe it is over twenty years since Good Omens!
Karen, “Mists of Avalon” is one of my all-time favourites and I re-read my elderly, battered copy every couple of years. However, I now have it on my Kindle along with many, many other old “goodies”. For a voracious reader like me living in Turkey, the Kindle is absolutely the best present I ever bought myself! No more huge postal costs from Amazon and I belong to a cyber group that exchange ebooks so am constantly finding new authors.
If I’m reading in a public place or restaurant I’m constantly approached by Turks wanting to see the Kindle and ask questions about it. You’re right about the increase in reading – when I first came to Turkey over 20 years ago you rarely saw people reading on the bus, at the beach etc, now lots of people buy books for enjoyment.
I love The Mists of Avalon, I only got it back on Saturday from a friend who had borrowed it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I like The Firebrand as well, and I have a craving to read it but it’s in Wales, tucked up in the loft.
I read old favourites on my computer, I have all my Julian May’s books on eReader, but a Kindle would be nicer, although I think I’ll wait for the new version because it will do colour. I think it would sell a storm in Turkey, it’s great technology and its a shame it’s not available for Turks.
Karen
Um. More literary news? I wonder what that this? A Koy classic, methinks.
. . this book thing, especially in the village was something of a surprise. My first book about the village with stories and photos from the villagers; printed in Turkish and English sold a bomb – but not to Turks and not to the villagers whose tales are told with granny and granpa’s pictures. Every kurus from sales goes into village projects and those same villagers who give generously to support the village and value what J and I do, just don’t seem to ‘get’ books, even when it amounts to a free gift for a ‘donation’. My second book of walks and cycle rides is only published in English, it not being worth the considerable effort to translate. It saddens me, but I value the cultural differences and wouldn’t swap my neighbours for anyone else’s, even if they don’t read my books!
I think it is brillaint that people outside your village read the books. The village doesn’t really need to, they know who they are and where they come from, it’s the rest of the world that needs to read that there is something special about life here and writing about it sends it out into the wider world.
My neighbours think it is hysterical that 150 thousand people have read this site and read about them! It doesn’t make them want to read it, sometimes it makes them smile because it confirms their lifestyle choice is good, but comprehend the numbers or the desire I have to write about it, no, they don’t get that and that’s cool.
Karen
you’re right about the Kindle – I’ve got one for practical reasons, postage, bulk, etc, but it just doesn’t match, never will match, the joy of the physical paperback book, battered, loved, trying to read it without breaking the spine, ceremoniously placing the finished read alongside other greats, having to relegate less-loved books down the shelf… maybe instead of encouraging Kindle to Turkey, we should encourage Waterstones :))
I agree I would die and go to heaven if Waterstones came to Turkey, it is one of my all time favourite shops. I love the smell of new books and old books. My sons and I went on a day trip once to Cork and the first place we found was a huge second hand book store. We didn’t come out for hours and almost missed the coach back!
If I’m reading quietly I’m often disturbed by my Turkish husband, he doesn’t see the point in reading books and can’t really understand how I can read for hours. If I buy a new book or my friends bring a load round to swap he’ll say
“you have all those other books why do you need more” It’s a passion he can’t get.
Don’t know if that is just Turkish men, every bloke I have ever known has used those exact same words! Phil used to just park me in a bookshop any time we went anywhere 🙂 My parents used to do the same.
Karen
I’m with you! I’ve got books covering most of the surfaces of my house, and love going to my grandmother’s house in Turkey cos it’s full of hers and my parents’ books (and records!). Each time I visit I find something new that seemingly wasn’t there before!
I’d love to be a copy editor on some books that are translated into Turkish…
The statistics for illiteracy in Turkey are high and even higher for women ,I wonder how many women in your village actually smile with lack of enthusiasm for knowledge or wonder because of a cultural difference or because they cannot actually read .I do think though that there are a growing number of affluent Turks who would just love a new gadget to show off. Personally my house would not be a home with just a kindle sitting on a shelf .
My house is also littered with books and I too have several on the go at one time. I can’t imagine a life without books. I’m wondering if I’m one of the few people who can’t get excited about Kindle. I’m sure it can’t hold the same pleasure as a real book?
I did read a really good article the other day by a lady who was re-reading many old favourite books on the Kindle because she could adjust the type to a readable size. She wouldn’t have bothered reading the paper book because the original typeface was tiny and even with reading glasses she would be peering uncomfortably at it.
I did try a Kindle the other day that one of the guests had and I did find it odd, really quite slow on the page turn because I read fast, but I guess that is something I would get used to. I would never give up buying paper books but I can see massive benefits in having a Kindle as I can actually then get hold of books that I would maybe not buy otherwise because I can sample them first and the weight and the shipping won’t be an issue. Also I think with the new Kindle Fire, because it will have colour, I’d buy more non fiction and illustrated books than I do now.
Hope you’re not too soggy over there in Milas!
Karen
I didn’t buy my Kindle to replace my books (have far too many to count!) but to complement them; I too love the feel and smell of books and the Kindle can’t replicate that. However, the reality is that within half an hour of starting to read on it I was completely hooked – it’s incredibly light and easy to hold, especially reading in bed or lying on the sofa ( both regular events in my house!), page turning is fine and becomes automatic with either hand, the text size adjustment is a real boon, the screen is legible even in the brightest sunlight, and best of all it fits in my handbag so is always at hand.
This sounds like an advert!!! and I apologise. However, the point is – I’ve come to realise that actually I don’t care whether the book I’m reading is in paper form, ebook form or written on tablets of stone – what I really care about is the story, not the format. My Kindle delivers that in spades, straight off the press and in my hand a minute after ordering; I’m currently reading the latest Robert Harris, delivered the day it was published. Love it!!!!!!!
I think that was pretty much the gist of the article I read – goes to look for it, finds it because I can always find my way back through the web – Here it is Linda Grant – Ebooks help me see into a writer’s mind
Karen – you’re so right about the memories associated with books. I’d completely forgotten about Mists of Avalon – but your mention of it has just transported me back to Ubud, Bali, 1996 – to a dusty little second hand bookstore -where I traded in a crime novel for Mists, and spent the next week, laying on a hammock engrossed in the story. It wasn’t my usual type of book – but it hooked me.
One of the great things about backpacking around SE Asia was the book swap places in even the smallest village – even it was only a shelf in a restaurant. Drop your finished book off and pick a new one up – if you’re backpacking it was essential to travel light.
I always used to have 4 or 5 books on the go – back my reading habits waned – until I converted to my Kindle app on my iPad – now I’m back to multiple books on the go again, I have half a dozen I’m dipping in and out of on Kindle, I have 2 paper backs at hand, and I just downloaded Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from iTunes.
The book industry waned for a while – but I think that people are reading more than ever now – it is so accessible … unless, by the sounds of it, you’re a Turkish-credit card toting kindle convert….
Funny how places tie to books, I was skiing in Banff in ’96, reading a copy of Magnificat by Julian May, which was published in Canada ages before it arrived in the UK. In my head I associate it with biting cold and blizzards!
I do think the e.book readers are boosting reading, the USA is a couple of year ahead of the UK, there they are over 20% of book sales as e.editions, the UK may hit 15% by the end of the year, mainland Europe is a year or two behind the UK. Like you I believe it is boosting reading, it makes it easier, it makes buying easier no matter how much we would all love a bookstore next door, and it evens the playing field a little for those small imprints that publish great books but can’t do the mega deals with the chain bookstores.
I’ll never stop buying and loving paper books, but if e.readers mean more people read more books then thats fantastic.
Karen
PS Girl with dragon tattoo – good book, surprised my mother enjoyed it though!
I love “real books,” but living here I’m so thankful for my iPad. I love being able to get any book I want immediately. Young American who loves instant gratification, here! :). One of the best features to me is the built-in dictionary. I can’t stand coming across a word I don’t know without looking it up! however, I miss my shelves and shelves of books at home. I love finishing a book and adding it to the rest!
Also, on the subject of Turks and reading, I’m lucky. My Turk really likes to read. Only if he can learn something from it though. Sitting together and reading is some of my favorite time. Fortunately we have a lot of opportunity for that during the winter here!
I remember when I first lived in Turkey 20 years ago, the women around me used to sit on their balconies shelling peas together and feel sorry for me sitting on my own reading a book. I used to have to sneak out on my balcony when they were inside cooking because they would call me over to join them rather than leave me alone with my book, they just couldn’t understand that for me it was pure bliss. It used to make us laugh that I had to almost read in secret, and it didn’t matter how many times I told them that I was perfectly happy on my own, they wouldn’t give up until I put the book down and went to join them. As for following a knitting pattern………this proved to them that I was indeed a poor soul to be pitied!!!!!!
I’m just the same. The neighbours have just been in to borrow the stepladder and found me writing and have tried to get me to come over to their house because I’m all alone, Nick is at the market. It’s pure bliss! Peace! Quiet! Totally at odds with what Turkish families think is good 🙂 I am, like you, pitied, can’t knit, can’t sew, can cook a bit. Karen
Great post, Karen. Another lifelong bookworm here. So far I’ve staunchly resisted the idea of a Kindle, as I so love the physicality of books (unsurprising, perhaps in a former librarian). but the article you linked to has given me food for thought, especially as my eyesight worsens with age.
Of your list of books on the go I’ve read all but the first two and Pratchett is one of our favourites. Methinks it’s time I did another book post….. 😉