Kolkata's very own Hogwarts

While the reading culture erodes and many books go unread, the passion for buying them remains unabated at fairs

Stanislaw Lem’s 1961 novel, Return from the Stars, shocked readers culturally by pointing out that there hadn’t been a book published in almost 50 years. “The books were crystals with recorded contents... At a touch, successive pages of the text appeared on it.” An ebook, huh? However, printed books are still published, fortunately, and book fairs attract thousands of visitors, making them the top festivity.

For instance, the 47th International Kolkata Book Fair, referred to locally as “Boi Mela,” which is underway from January18-31, is a bibliophile’s paradise! With an estimated footfall of 2.6 million people in the 2023 edition, it’s the biggest book expo in the world. Additionally, it has encouraged the regular occurrence of numerous book fairs in West Bengal’s smaller towns.

In fact, the Kolkata Book Fair’s popularity in Bengal may be surpassed only by Durga Puja! Of course, it’s a special feast for authors, publishers, readers, and enthusiasts. It’s a festival of literature and culture, with several significant seminars, symposia, lectures, and debates held within the fair site and attended by eminent speakers from Bengal and around the globe. Just as packed as the book stalls at Boi Mela are the food stands. Additional attractions include the possibility of running into some of your favourite writers and cultural figures, as well as some old acquaintances, during a random stroll through the fairground.

Every year, a country is invited to participate as the Focal Theme to showcase its literature and culture, with the UK being the theme country in 2024. Prominent publishers from diverse corners of the globe participate. There are over 1,000 stalls at the fair this year. And the previous edition of the show had sales of a staggering Rs 25 crore.

Nevertheless, amidst the glitter of the book fair it is crucial to acknowledge that the reading culture is eroding. But this isn’t all the fault of social media, smartphones, or the internet. Author and Journalism Professor Mitchell Stephens published a seminal piece in the Los Angeles Times Magazine in September 1991 titled, “The Death of Reading,” detailing how television and other modes of entertainment cracked through our reading habit.

Books are still, nevertheless, being marketed widely — in bookstores, online, and at book fairs. And, occasionally, books may create tremendous enthusiasm as well. After nine years, a new Harry Potter adventure was published in 2016, and hundreds of people queued up, standing in line since midnight to purchase it. However, should we generally be this excited? The magic of Hogwarts is not present in every book, unfortunately. We frequently purchase a significant number of books but never read them. Isn’t Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time sometimes referred to as “the most unread book of all time,” despite having sold over 25 million copies? American mathematician Jordan Ellenberg even developed the Hawking Index (HI), a mock mathematical measure indi­cating how far people will, on average, read through a book before giving up. The HI of Brief History is 6.6 per cent, and there are books with even lower values: Hillary Clinton’s Hard Choices is the most unread book, with an HI of 1.9 per cent.In 1985, The New Republic’s editor Michael Kinsley, carried out an intriguing experiment. He put little notes with a telephone number at some bookstores in Washington, DC, roughly three-quarters of the way through 70 copies of specific books that everyone in the city seemed to be talking about. Mr Kinsley offered a $5 reward to anyone who found them. Well, nobody gave a call!

Thankfully, book sellers’ revenue solely depends on sales. A high sales volume at a book fair is therefore beneficial to publishers, even though it might not be a reflection of people’s reading habits. There may be fewer and fewer people reading books while commuting on buses, trains, and airplanes. Undoubtedly, digital media is capturing our attention. Never­theless, tens of thousands gather at the Kolkata Book Fair. And they purchase books, a lot of which regrettably may go unread. Occasionally, however, we attempt to read an unread book by pulling it out of the bookcase. There might be a hidden note tucked in somewhere. Who knows?

The writer is professor of statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata