Money, you shrunk my bookshelf

Roopinder Singh

Khan Market, New Delhi, has long prided itself on its book stores... but they were empty recently... half shuttered, actually, as everyone, including employees, was engaged otherwise  — standing in a long, serpentine queue paying obedience to the  post-demonitisation god — the ATM. It comes as no surprise that publishing industry has seen a precipitous drop in business after notebandi. 

We know that books are a discretionary expenditure for a vast majority, and this was bound to happen, yet this is but one, hopefully transient, assault on the culture of reading books.  There were endless skirmishes on social media platforms that raised noise to a level where thinking became impossible; factoids, half-truths and planted stories with nebulous relationship to truth, all contributed to an environment that treated treatises as antediluvian, what with the 140-character feeds, or their extended versions enchanting the chattering classes.

Anti-intellectualism rose to a fevered pitch, as most recently seen in the prelude to the election of Donald Trump as president of the US. It was in books like The Year of Voting Dangerously: The Derangement of American Politics that readers sought to figure out the contest between two of the most unpopular US presidential candidates. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspired a thousand titles, most of these regurgitating publically-available information.

The Turbulent Years: 1980-1996 by President Pranab Mukherjee was a memoir memorable for not creating ripples. Sanjay Baru's 1991: How PV Narasimha Rao Made History reminded Indians of a forgotten Prime Minister, and Mamata Banerjee proved a prolific writer — she released 10 books together, including one on... Tolerance. 

Beyond politics, there is the need to understand and heal our body. The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee expectedly hit the bestsellers list and the critics’ admiration. The poignant When Breath Becomes Air brought home the struggle of a cancer victim, and the medical profession and doctors came in for uncomfortable scrutiny with Dissenting Diagnosis by Dr Arun Gadre and Dr Abhay Shukla.

As we look beyond individual books, we see how the Indian publishing industry is growing, even in e-books, which have been slow to start. Notebandi shall pass, many of us are voracious readers, and authors and publishers shall continue to satiate our appetite, even as they whet it. Amen.

A Nobel act?

Seventy five-year-old Bob Dylan won Nobel Prize for Literature for his songwriting but did he feel humbled and privileged like other awardees? Not really! The award stirred up a couple of controversies — from what is it that qualifies as an outstanding piece of literature: genre or language to Dylan initially not even bothering to acknowledge the prestigious honour, which did happen only after a five-day wait.   

Know your sportstars

Many a book was churned out from this genre. All were given a thumbs up by sports and book lovers alike. The most popular ones were Driven and Ace Against Odds. The former was based on cricket sensation Virat Kohli's life by Vijay Lokapally. The other was authored by Sania Mirza herself. My Olympic Journey by Digvijay Singh Deo and Amit Bose on accomplishments of 50 competing players from India was well-timed with the 2016 Olympics. 

Just in case

For readers who seek depth, we had a choice of books on all serious affairs, Indian and international. Shivshankar Menon's Choices: Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy was well-received, so was The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh on the threat that climate corrosion is to us. Ujjal Dosanjh's Journey After Midnight: India, Canada and the Road Beyond and Kanhaiya Kumar's From Bihar to Tihar created some buzz as well. 

Up & above, once more 

Chetan Bhagat’s One Indian Girl broke all records of Amazon’s pre-order history. The book beat day 1 pre-order number of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, that too within just half an hour of going live on the platform. The banker-turned-author promoted the book across all mediums, even on reality shows.