Chinua Achebe passes on

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, 82, died in a hospital in Boston after a brief illness, on March 22, 2013. He was widely regarded as the father of modern African literature, and lived and worked as a professor in the United States in recent years, most recently at Brown University in Rhode Island. Nobel prize winner, Wole Soyinka; poet, John Pepper Clark; fellow Nigerian who died in the Biafrah war of the 70s, Christopher Okigbo; and Chinua Achebe were the 'brother' African writers of the 50s and 60s.

There was a minor 'literary' furore in Malaysia in 2006 about Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, the news of which took a trip around the world. Malaysia had banned Things Fall Apart.  This is what happened: we had ordered copies of the books, which we had kept in stock since we opened in 1999, but were told by our distributors that they could not supply us because the book had been 'banned' by the government. So, because the book was being used in schools, we had to tell that to many of our customers who were teachers and students. You can imagine their reaction. Blogs were the 'in' thing at the time, not Facebook.

'Banning' books in Malaysia has many dimensions, not always done in accordance to the law. One can speculate, from past experience, what happened at the customs this time though. I'd go with arbitrary confiscation (because we checked and didn't find the title on the 'banned; list), to scare the hell out of the importer. Why? We have absolutely no idea. Maybe, he said something wrong, or didn't do something right. Or, he did nothing at all. But, it appeared to have worked; after that the importer became a little paranoid about bringing in anything. Proscribing books by harassment works, and is effective. And the Minister can honestly say that the book is not on the 'list', foreign do-gooders will be happy with the reply (tick), and the importer will never see the books again.

I have checked the latest KDN list, and Things Fall Apart is not on it. Maybe, it never was. Or, maybe, the cynic in me says, they did a Winston Smith on it and erased the past, changed history. I notice that the title on breast feeding I saw several years ago is not on it now, either.

Walmart technology

A Reuters report in September last year (which we reported in this column) said,  "Wal-Mart Stores Inc will no longer sell Amazon.com Inc's Kindle eReaders and tablets, severing its relationship with a major competitor." We predicted Walmart would introduce their own gadget and give it away free to replace that trojan horse. What's happening now is that they have developed an app for the iPhone as a free download.

While Walmart is almost a half-trillion dollar company with annual revenues of $466 billion for its fiscal year 2013, which ended January 31, its online sales revenue is only 9 billion dollars compared to 61 billion for Amazon. Walmart want's to compete and win.

"Walmart is a technology company. Let’s just put that out there right now. The company has crushed all competitors through its mastery of supply-chain logistics and inventory management, which above all are engineering problems," says a recent Wired report.

In August last year, Reuters reported that Wal-Mart Stores Inc was testing a system at a Walmart supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas, near the company's headquarters that would allow shoppers to scan items using their iPhones and then pay at a self-checkout counter, a move to trim checkout times and costs for retailers.

The latest news is that Walmart's  app-based self-checkout is available in more than 200 stores in the US, Wired says, "When you open Walmart’s location-aware main app in a store that has iPhone self-checkout, the so-called “Scan & Go” option becomes available. You scan the barcodes on items as you put them in your (physical) shopping cart, and the app keeps a running total. When you’re done, you go to a standard self-checkout station and choose the “mobile” option on the terminal next to the card swiper. A QR code appears on the screen. Scan the code with your phone, and the app transfers over the contents of your (virtual) shopping cart. Pay as usual, and you’re done." (Watch the Walmart video.)

Yes, anyone who gives Amazon some competition deserves our support.

History of Book Vending Machines

Saw this in the Huffington Post, and thought we'd share it.

Did you know, "The first book-dispensing vending machine was built by Richard Carlile in England in 1822. Carlile was a bookseller who wanted to sell seditious works like Paine's Age of Reason without being thrown in jail. His answer was a self service machine that allowed customers to buy questionable books without ever coming into contact with Carlile. The customer turned a dial on the devise to the publication he wanted, deposited his money, and the material dropped down in front of him ... but that didn't stop ... from convicting one of Carlile's employees for selling "blasphemous material."

There are no pictures of that machine, unfortunately, but you can see one of the 1937 Penguincubator, which appeared in London in 1937, conceived by Allen Lane, the founder of (surprise) Penguin Books, and dispensed classic literature in paperback form for about the price of a pack of cigarettes. Cool.

There are others pictures like:

• the 1947 book vending machine called the Book-O-Mat, which featured a selection of 50 books any one of which could be purchased for USD 0.25 each.
  
• the modern day one in Japan that has success in dispensing a variety of items including beer, pornography, wallet-sized books and comics the size of a phone directory;
  
• A Novel Idea at London's Heathrow airport that went bankrupt in 2010. 
• a paperback vending machine in a Barcelona subway station filled with Spanish translations of Nora Roberts and Victoria Holt.
• the Readomatic at the Stockholm airport 
• and lastly, and most interestingly, the BIBLIO-MAT that debuted last year by the Toronto bookshop named Monkey's Paw, the world's first vending machine to dispense a randomly selected second-hand book for the price of two Canadian dollars. You'll never know what you're going to get!

Indie Bookshop Survival Guide

Is the fate of book stores a cliffhanger? this is suggested in a report in The Economist headlined The future of the bookstore: A real cliffhanger. The reason for this question is apparently due to the onslaught of e-books and e-tailers like Amazon, with the inevitable comparison to the music industry.

First, for the bookstore, the report says: 'For a bookstore to remain successful, it must improve “the experience of buying books," says Alex Lifschultz, an architect whose London-based practice is designing the new Foyles. He suggests an array of approaches: "small, quiet spaces cocooned with books; larger spaces where one can dwell and read; other larger but still intimate spaces where one can hear talks from authors about books, literature, science, travel and cookery." The atmosphere is vital, he adds. Exteriors must buzz with activity, entrances must be full of eye-catching presentations and a bar and café is essential.'

Weren't most book stores already doing these things? Quiet cosy nooks, areas for talks, grand entrance displays and cafe's. Borders started this trend, and was very successful initially; people loved it, and everyone else imitated them. But they were also very silly about it, and went broke. Why did they go broke? Was it a problem with the management, the book-retail model, or the industry? Improving the experience of buying books is good. Loyalty is good. But what do customers really want? Unfortunately, only real book buyers know what they want in a book store. Mr Alex Lifshultz, are you a book buyer? Do you read? Do you have a library in your house? How big is your collection? Do you like hanging about in bookshops? What do you expect them to be?

The book seems to be the only commodity that is sold by people with little or no product knowledge. No none would buy electrical or electronic goods from someone who does not even know where the 'on' switch is. I remember my visit to Foyles many years ago, and how I was immediately impressed by how much the staff knew. For one thing, the book is not a commodity to start with. For another, change is not going to come from the big boys; they are the reason for the mess we're in.

I just read about an Indie Bookseller Award short-list in the UK. That's where I believe the change will take place.  The indies will have to make many sacrifices of course. Many have told me that they've always loved the idea of setting up bookshops. Here are some suggestions:

• don't set up a bookshop because you think it's cool; or because you think you won't have much to do; or you can read all day; or because you have nothing better to do. Set it up if that's what you absolute want to do, and be prepared to work like a slave.
  
• go local, cater to your town/region, build an in-shop/online community, promote your local writers, hold events, stock their books, even if they're self published, go to the universities and colleges, both faculty and students make good markets if you stock the type of books they want.
  
• pick a niche you're good in, could be anything, but know it well, give it your best shot.
  
• choose your books carefully, they should reflect the character of the owner; browse in remaindered stores for good bargains, forget about stocking current bestsellers unless the publishers are willing to give you the same terms they offer Amazon (even if you're buying only two copies), there's no need for you to become Amazon's showroom, but provide the option of back to back orders; consult your customers (they may know of books you don' or have missed), will also help build the community.
  
• don't spend a fortune on fancy architects (whether they read, or not). A friend down the road might be able to help you at a fraction of the cost.

Learning grammar from books

 There was a story by Julia Eccleshare in The Guardian recently, "Can children learn grammar just from reading books? There's plenty of evidence that the best children's books contain all the grammar young readers need. They also make learning enjoyable – unlike textbooks."

I remember I used to hate English grammar in school. (This was in the sixties). I used to hate Malay grammar, too. (How's that for non-discriminatory hate!) Guess, the truth was, I hated memorising facts. But I read quite a bit. So, while I'd do badly in the grammar part of the paper, I'd get an 'A' for my karangan (and essay writing). Now, I'm editing books in English (some of which are good enough for international award short- and long- lists), but I dread anyone asking me what part of speech anything is in, or any other detail. If it sounds right, that's good enough for me. We have a proofreader in the UK who advises and corrects me, but, seriously, it does not happen that often.

Eccleshare says: "Why have schools been told that reading doesn't help you to learn grammar? My child is being prepared for the new Year 6 grammar test. Suddenly, a lot of literacy teaching time is focusing on that at the expense of time spent on "reading for pleasure". I can't help feeling that the children could learn the grammar better if they read more."

Have schools really been told that reading doesn't help grammar? Jeez. I have been out of school too long. Sure, we didn't have too many 'native' speakers teaching us English, but no one said that to us, though that didn't stop them from trying to drill rules of grammar into our heads (which I have duly forgotten after I left school).

She quotes S. Krahsen's The Power of Reading: "When children read for pleasure, when they get "hooked on books", they acquire, involuntarily and without conscious effort, nearly all of the so-called 'language skills' many people are so concerned about: they will become adequate readers, acquire a large vocabulary, develop the ability to understand and use complex grammatical constructions, develop a good writing style, and become good (but not necessarily perfect) spellers."

And, "Although free voluntary reading alone will not ensure attainment of the highest levels of literacy, it will at least ensure an acceptable level. Without it, I suspect that children simply do not have a chance."

And how high a level of literacy is that?