Professor Harry Lewis's recent op-ed in the South China Morning Post suggested that e-publications are the way of the future and that Hong Kong is the best place to cash in on that future. I am not convinced that e-publications are the best way to go nor am I convinced that this city will go that way.
I recently had a chance to sit down with Matt Steele of Dymocks Books. According to Steele, our city's bookstores are not slowing down. Far from it, most bookstores are doing well and they are even expanding. There are now 13 Dymocks, 8 Bookazines, 3 Kelly and Walsh, and countless other medium and mega sized English bookstores in Hong Kong.
Perhaps it is because at present, there is still no quick and easy way to get publications from e-readers in Hong Kong. iTunes is not available in Hong Kong. Amazon Kindle ships to Hong Kong now but certain books and periodicals are only available to US customers (those having a US billing address), mainly because of licensing restrictions. Still, I think that even when we solve the e-publication licensing problems, our bookstore days will not be over.
Indeed, there's something magical and special about going to a bookstore that clicking on Amazon or iTunes can never replicate. In a city where shopping is the official past time, browsing in bookstores is at least a slightly more respected and intellectual form of shopping. Thus, bookstores can be found in major malls, occupying coveted retail space. The fact that landlords of new malls routinely call up Dymocks to request that a bookstore be opened in their mall shows how much our city and its residents need and love books.
Surprisingly, the highest grossing items sold in Dymocks are not books for adults. They are magazines, followed by children's books. These two items far outsell adult novels and nonfiction. During the economic downturn, bookstore sales remained surprisingly stable. Steele says it is because no matter what the economic climate, Hong Kong people are always eager to spend $100 on a celebrity magazine or on a Thomas the Tank Engine book for their children. What that says about our city, I really don't know. But hey, at least they're reading.
If we are mostly buying books for our children and for short-term entertainment, perhaps it is a good thing to keep e-books at arm's length. After all, most children I've talked to have said that they much prefer reading a physical book than an e book. No reader is as light on the eyes as an actual book. With an actual book, kids can trade it with their friends and sift through the pages more easily.
To promote reading, our city's bookstores also frequently sponsor and hold reading events. Dymocks routinely invites authors to give talks at their bookstores. This year, Dymocks and Hong Kong Book Centre are among the main sponsors of Spellbulary, our upcoming city-wide spelling bee. It is simply not possible to get from a website the sense of community that a bookstore provides. Not only is this sense of community great for promoting reading, but also for teaching and shaping our young.
Finally, a key reason physical books trump e-books has to do with vanity. You can prominently display a book but you cannot prominently show off an e book. Steele says that he suspects some books sell well in Hong Kong primarily because they look impressive on bookshelves.
Whatever our reasons--be they purely vain or completely legitimate--bookstores, at least for the short run, are here to stay and thank goodness for that!
No comments:
Post a Comment