How to buy books
DOUGLAS DUTTON, owner of Dutton’s Brentwood Books and Dutton’s Beverly Hills, advises that the next time we’re browsing for books in a bookstore we should keep the following principles in mind when making book-buying decisions:
- Giving books is also about sharing, so give something that you love and want others to appreciate.
- Don’t be swayed or influenced by bestseller lists or a single positive or negative review: check out the books for yourself and decide.
- Trust the store’s workers, who spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about titles, listening to opinions about them and being exposed to innumerable reviews.
- Consider the prizewinners (Pulitzer, Man Booker, Nobel, National Book Award, etc.), but also consider choosing runners-up to the actual winners; better yet, give both winners and also-rans.
- There is an abundance of riches awaiting you in the aisles of your neighborhood bookstore. Go explore.
posted by Eric Forbes at 5:49 PM
2 Comments:
Douglas Dutton gave good advice for buying books but I wonder whether it will be useful in the Malaysian context.
"Giving books is also about sharing, so give something that you love and want others to appreciate..."
I find that most people do not share what I enjoy so giving them these books may not be a good idea. They thank you but do not read the books and I feel hurt that they did not enjoy it.
"Don’t be swayed or influenced by bestseller lists or a single positive or negative review..."
Always a good idea except that our local bookstore only stock these so called bestsellers. And some of our reviewers are rather dreadful in their reviewing.
"Trust the store’s workers..." uhh! Unfortunately most of our bookstore workers have not knowledge of the books they sell and sometimes I wonder whether they read at all.
"Consider the prizewinners (Pulitzer, Man Booker, Nobel, National Book Award, etc.), but also consider choosing runners-up ..." Again I am not too impressed with the judging and could not shake off the feeling that biasness and politics influence the judges.
"There is an abundance of riches awaiting you in the aisles of your neighborhood bookstore..." How I wish. In our local bookstore I find bestsellers,newspaper, videos DVD, stationery and poor coffee.
You are right on all counts, Alex. How we wish bookstores in Malaysia live up to what's expected of them.
1. When buying books for others, buy what you think they will enjoy; otherwise, they will chuck the books aside.
2. Many a time books that are badly reviewed are actually quite good.
3. Product knowledge of Malaysian bookstore workers leaves much to be desired.
4. There are many factors that affect the opinion of judges, sad to say.
5. I guess you will have to look for the riches among the pifflish nonsense that is being sold in the bookstores.
Post a Comment
<< Home