Chennai: On the occasion of World Book Day, publishers and librarians feel that book reading habit has not declined dramatically primarily because social media has helped in increasing popularity of books.
While some youngsters feel that reading a whole book online or through PDF saves money, most of the serious book readers always prefer books in physical form.
Tamil book readers are on the rise, said Nagarajan Bharathi, a Tamil book publisher. He said everyday around 40 customers visit his shop. “Ardent readers prefer books over online version. Even though online bookstores such as Flipkart and Amazon exist, people prefer to come to the shop and buy it. They want to have a look at the book, which online sites doesn’t provide,” he said adding that internet has helped in publicising Tamil books in a big way.
Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platform have helped popularize Tamil books, he said adding that Tamil authors such as S. Ramakrishna and Era Nagarasan are popular.
Despite the availability of books online, people always prefer to read books, said Mini Suresh, a former online librarian and curator of books. “Reading books has not declined dramatically. I feel even if books are available online, readership of printed books will never go down,” she said.
She quoted newspaper reports to say that sale of e-book devices has gone down indicating that people are preferring books. “I love buying books and the excitement of reading a new book is something which online books can never replace. When it comes to online books, mostly, which are in PDF format, or the Kindle sets, one cannot read for a long time,” said S. Gopika, an IT professional and an avid reader.
“There is a different kind of an excitement in reading books, which online books doesn’t have,” said Shruthi S, another reader. But online books can help save money. “I feel online books helps you save money. In today’s world, everything is online, so I prefer reading books online. You just need to download a particular book and you can read the entire book,” said R. Kavya, a student.
