- Posts tagged Books
- Explore Books on posterous
And one man we love to hate. (Hint: Five Point OMG)
Just watched Love2HateU with the celebrity guest being Chetan Bhagat. I feel rather bad for the hater, the poor girl stood no chance against Bhagat’s generous Gandhi-ism. He was so beatifically patronizing and condescending that I wonder she didn’t throw something at him. But that’s Chetan Bhagat – a huge icon and idol to some and a huge eyebrow raiser to others.
Bhagat’s success – and he is astonishingly successful – is because he has crawled through the cracks and found his target audience. And what a target audience that is. The non-readers. Instead of churning out a high-brow book filled with beautiful metaphors and aiming for the Booker, Bhagat does what he does best – appeal to the section of the readers that is undiscerning. But that’s not to say that his writing has no merit. It’s just unpalatable to a reader who wants something more – an enhanced literary experience, if you must.
Bhagat makes no pretensions about his literary aspirations, but he appears to consider you with pitiful glances if you question his success. He basks in his own stupendous success, often lying on a raft of self-appreciation, and what irks people is that his raft never, ever capsizes. Top models can have a bad hair day, brilliant directors can have a box office flop, the Sensex can crash, but Chetan Bhagat only goes from strength to strength.
His hater questioned the audience and their intelligence. One girl defensively answered, “Ya we read other stuff. But I don’t want to read Rushdie. I’d much rather read Bhagat.” So you have a polarized readership of Indians. The ones who read Rushdie or Amitav Ghosh and the ones who read Bhagat. Bhagat has automatically found his masses, found his safety in numbers and addressed the people who look for easy escapism in reading and not for anything challenging. Bhagat is proud of the fact that he has made people who don't read, read. Readers are appalled by the fact that these non-readers have begun with reading his books and set their literary standard there. But each to his own, right?
And in a democratic world, readers should have that choice. Readers should have beach novels, glossy magazines, Mills & Boon and Bhagat. It isn’t annoying that Bhagat’s books are valid reading options for people. What’s annoying is how much people like them, and give him a reason to keep going. And it would be far less annoying if he didn’t think so much of himself. “I’m happy to be on this show (Love2HateU) because my new book has just released and I want to know that there are people here who don’t like what I do, not just people who enjoy my books.” Oh stuff it.
To Read or To Buy?
Point. There was a time, back during my college days, when I would
count the days until the book fair and saved up pocket money for my
No. 1 indulgence. There were some amazing deals back in the day -
books piled upon books, some obscure titles, all at throw-away prices.
It was fun rummaging through them and collecting a whole bunch of
treasures. Today (and it has been the case recently) seeing that
pitiful selection of books lined up on tables spine up, face down,
sorted according to a rather unintelligible system, it made me feel
sad. I felt a compulsion to buy - just coz I was there, I even picked
a couple of titles up, but then put them down again. Ironically, I can
indulge myself now, but the temptation is much lower. Either I have
lost the maniacal desire to own that a literature student always has,
or the fair was just plain boring. I'd rather go with the latter - a
sign that kindles are winning over books. A shoe sale will have hordes
of women pushing and shoving in an unlady-like fashion to get to that
perfect stiletto. Even the plant and bonsai garden sale on Marine
Drive garners more attention than the once-popular Strand Book Fair.
And it's not just that the prices are not really tempting - it's a bit
of a sham. The discounts on the books are what is regularly offered by
them in their store and by others for regular buyers. The ones with
the mega deals are hardly visible. The hall looks dull and lifeless,
like the line of titles not even bothering to vie for attention. Books
have NEVER made me feel so dismal as the book fair has today. We were recently was discussing how Danai in Bandra has a certain old
book store charm and character and how big chain stores lack that
feeling. I go to Crossowrds to grab a coffee and maybe a book. I would
go to Danai to find the book that I can't elsewhere. Also, it is
amazing how those who run a book store have no idea where their books
are. Oxford, case in point, at Churchgate. Their staff is clueless
about the books. A big book store is just that - a shop with books. A
book shop should have real charm and character, where you can chat
with the staff knowledgebly, the owner will participate because
reading and knowledge shouldn't be commercialised. I guess that's what
the movie You've Got Mail was about. It's happening here now, and
there's nothing we can do to stop the art of reading becoming the
front of the salesman.
