How has the reading culture changed over the years? Who better to answer this question that those who work at the bookstores around town. So, The Week talked to a few bookstores employees to know more about the changing trends in reading.Bikash Thapa
Staff, Ratna Pustak Bhandar
Ratna Pustak Bhandar has a large collection of religious books like Ramayan, Mahabharat, even books on tantra, philosophy, Buddhism, astrology, and spirituality. We have a limited number of fictions by local and foreign authors. But compared to 15 years ago when we first opened, we have been getting a lot of customers. A lot of male customers of all age come to get these books, rather than female customers as the latter don't have to take part in religious rituals as much as the men. Even at that, we get a lot of young males, especially college goers and teenagers. There is an endless demand for the four Vedas, as they deal with the karmakandas important for our rituals. There are even some readers who come looking for really old books, but as we don't always have them in our stocks, it's sometimes difficult to cater to these kinds of requests.
Mahesh Mahat
Business Promotion Officer, Ekta Books
At Ekta, we find teenagers hooked to series like Harry Potter, The Maze Runner, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. They even show a strong inclination to read works of fantasy and romance, mainly books that have been hyped up in the market and books that are sure to keep them entertained. But readers above the age of 25 don't stick to any genre. They are always looking for books of different fields and subject matter, something that can help them grow, and because they can also afford to buy the books that they want to read, they can be considered as serious readers. Books about entrepreneurship, business, and self-help are some that are selling like hot cakes these days. A lot of students come to get cheaper Harvard university books on business, as we have a huge collection dedicated to it. I think schools pushing the reader culture are to be attributed towards the changing reading culture in Kathmandu.
Kahani Tiwari
Managing Director, Pilgrims Book House
It's amazing to see young Nepalis coming forward and developing a reading habit. Earlier the culture of reading books was confined to only adults, but now even kids and youngsters have picked it up. I think parents have realized the importance of reading and schools have played an equal part in making sure the young ones read. Students come looking for variety of books for their assignments. We have tried our best to make sure that there's something for people of all age group, so that a customer doesn't get bored when s/he visits us. We mostly sell fiction – both English and Nepali – and children books, self-help, business, and spiritual are some of our main areas of focus. Many tourists too visit our store, so we try to keep books about Nepal, mountaineering, travel diaries, and guide books as well. I think it's interesting to note that readers are seeking books on spirituality. Philosophers like Osho, Swami Rama, Shri Shri Ravi Shanker, Krishnamurti, Raman Maharshi, etc are becoming very popular among adults.
Siddhartha Maharjan
Sales Manager, Mandala Book Point
We do sense a change in our readers who have frequented our store. Those who initially read simple books from authors like Chetan Bhagat have moved on to more complex ones. While teenagers prefer reading young adult books, high school students are reading thrillers, and people in their 30s to late 40s prefer reading non-fiction. Recently, however, we have noticed a decrease of sales in the mountaineering and trekking books, owing to the present situation, but still, the amount of readers is increasing, compared to the past years. Readers like reading the new releases as well. Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, for example, is quite popular at the moment. We have also noticed that the trend of reading e-books has increased because of the advancement in technology, but it is yet to be seen if it will affect our sales here. There is a mixed reaction regarding e-books, and it might take a few more years to really find out how tech friendly people can be.
Rupagya Manandhar
Assistant Manager, SastoBook
SastoBook usually presents books from fiction to course-books and everything in between, so we can't really pinpoint a particular genre as one that sells more than the rest. But what we do know is that most of our clientele is from the age group 18-26, those who have an internet access, understandably as we are an online bookstore. It also contributes to our increased clientele, because we are easily available in social networking sites. In our site, we list the new releases, as well as those books that are popular. Going by that, I think our customers are reading all kinds of books. We get an order of around 40 books per week. So Kathmandu seems to reading quite a fair bit. We are regularly in touch with our customers, and we get to know a lot about new books from them as well.
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