Thursday, August 30, 2007 [ 7:26 AM ]

WE LOVE JOBS FAIR; BUT WE ALSO GO TO BOOK FAIRS

With the opening of the 28th Manila International Book Fair yesterday, it seems that the book industry in the country is doing a little better than in the previous years.

Though it can be argued that most of the visitors who went to this kind of book fair only represent a small portion of the society, it can still be considered a good start especially for a third world country like ours. In spite of the books’ expensive prices, it’s a good thing to know that the number of book readers in the Philippines is continuously increasing.

A report of the Philippine Daily Inquirer said that the International economic and financial institutions attested that indeed the book economy have shown resurgence in the recent years. In an era of PSP’s, iPod’s and iMax, many were proven wrong when they thought that it will be the start of the book economy’s inevitable death.

One recent event I can remember to prove this was the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly hollows. Though Filipinos were not as enthusiastic as the fans of the book in other parts of the world, the early queue of people in bookstores when the book was first released is an indication that books can still find its place in the country. American author Stephen King even wrote a review of the book, weeks after its release, in entertainment weekly and disproves the academics and whom he called bighead educators when they said that reading in its major part was dead.

The only sad about the book industry in the country is that the government doesn’t seem to give so much attention to it. It’s not as if it’s something surprising but there’s nothing wrong in being optimistic and hopeful- even how nearly impossible your hopes are. If the cheaper medicines bill is still not passed until now, with all the media attention given to it, how much more can we expect our congressmen to pass a bill that will lower the prices of books? Maybe it could help if we just keep our fingers crossed because something like that may not even come to mind of these honorable creatures.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah I agree. Lower taxes on books and increase taxes on cigarettes and alcohol bwahaha.

Btw, I should really get back to reading. :(

7:27 PM  
Blogger chizjarkace said...

Right! Higher taxes cigarettes and alcohol and not on books... just wait till I authored a bill hehe

8:00 AM  

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