Letters

Here's hoping bookstores can turn a new page

LETTERS: I am in my mid-60s. In the old days, I used to frequent bookshops, but now I shop online and get new 
and used books from the United States.

And due to the Covid-19 pandemic, even the Big Bad Wolf book sales have gone digital.

It used to display books in warehouses that were open 24 hours a day for a week, and book enthusiasts used to go with luggage bags to buy the books.

More than a million books were offered and it was the biggest book-selling event in the country. Today, the Big Bad Wolf has gone digital.

So what's in store for the fewer than 2,000 bookshops in the country?

Hopefully, bookshops will reinvent themselves and come out with new ways to win back the book-reading culture.

The traditional setting of bookshops has to change. Book prices need to be marked down.

Promotions have to be ongoing and flyers should be sent to schools and educational institutes.

Bookstores could organise colouring, spelling, reading and story-telling competitions.

They need to make themselves relevant to the times and needs of the young generation.

SAMUEL YESUIAH

Seremban, Negri Sembilan


The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times

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