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High on mush

Photo: Sampath Kumar g.p.

Great escape When there is so much gloom and doom around, a book provides a ticket to an alternative life

You’ve stopped yourself from splurging on a pair of Jimmy Choos this New Year and instead settled for a pair of unfussy kitten heels that cost like half that price.

This is the first summer you haven’t argued with your husband when planning a holiday. Instead of vacationing on some foreign shores, you have decided to tour a neighbouring State.

With recession showing no signs of receding, cutting back wherever, whenever and on whatever possible is what people have learnt to do, almost mechanically now.

There is one commodity that has no difficulty finding buyers. According to a recent report in The New York Times, romance novels is the new darling of the market. Today is World Book Day, and MetroPlus checks out if there is a similar trend being followed here.

Kanaga, a college student says, “I haven’t stopped buying books just because of the recession. However, I haven’t bought as many books in the last year as I would have previously. Whenever I can borrow a book, I do so, but being a die-hard romantic, there is always something at the bookstore that catches my eye.” Apparently, the happy endings are one of the reasons for the spike in the sale of romantic novels. Eisha Oomer, a voracious reader and freelance writer says, “The times are highly stressful. Layoffs, salary cuts, underemployment are some of the harsh realities of our lives. Who wouldn’t then want to sit down to a few pages of fairytale romances where everyone lives happily ever after?”

According to the report, such escapist urges have also increased the sale of books belonging to the science fiction and fantasy genres and Melvin, who works at a city bookshop testifies, “Of late, people, especially teenagers and young adults have taken to reading fantasy. ‘The Twilight’ series is a big hit among them.”

It has also been observed that romance readers are loyal to their favourite authors. One possible reason could be it is safer to spend your hard-earned money on something you are sure you would like instead of experimenting. However, Jayanta of Landmark begs to differ. According to him, “Readers here, especially those who come in on weekdays are genuine book lovers who are not biased. They do not discriminate against authors or genres.”

With the popularization of e-books, many of which are romantic novels that can be downloaded for almost nothing, one would expect a substantial fall in the number of people who actually purchase a romance hardcover.

Available for easier and quicker devouring and the fact that there are not too many hidden costs would imply people by and large have taken to digital editions of bestsellers. Yet Jayanta says, “Possessing a book is one thing and downloading it is something that can barely be compared to it. The Indian reader isn’t someone who has second thoughts about buying a book even though he could save some money on downloadable versions of the same book.”

For psychologist Jamuna Tripathi, “Possessing a romance novel is like holding a ticket to an alternate life. Identifying with the heroine and escaping from reality makes people want to read more of these kinds of books.”

It certainly looks like the Indian reader like their global counterparts are addicted to love. After all, who wouldn’t want to indulge in a breathless paperback when one’s real life story is far from being glamourous, melodramatic and shall we say perfect?

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