This year, the periodical press downplayed the annual Chennai Book Fair though the inauguration had a reprimand from the Chief Minister for the award of a prize to a book of history of the city. The Fair must have displayed a record number of new books. One publisher alone is said to have brought out 80 books at one go in December 2009.
The reason for bringing out a large number of books at one time is, of course, the library order. In the big libraries with updated catalogues, it is not difficult to trace a book in English but the majority of libraries are small with no catalogue or even a list of books. Language books in some cases may have been included in the catalogue but end up as not traceable because of the open access system. Therefore, depending on library orders may be worthwhile for the publisher financially but there is no guarantee books will reach a reader.
Also, with such a deluge of new books, the risk of a good one being missed out is very real for even a most diligent browser. It takes months, sometimes years, for a book to be singled out as a must-read. Blogs may be interesting as news items of a daily newspaper but they lack the reflection and revision of a piece of writing done specially for the print media. Some may that even in magazines, the ‘personal columns’ are no better than blogs.
Full report here Express Buzz
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