Argentina is trying to promote reading by stocking cafes with books of famous national writers. Granted the scheme may not really achieve its goal since it doesn't address the fact that illiteracy is correlated with low income, and the books-in-cafe-promotion would attract the people who can afford to visit these fancy cafes and who probably already read for leisure.
anyway, watching this clip made me think about whether such a scheme could be introduced in singapore not necessarily as a campaign to promote reading but as a platform to help local writers take off. Stock the cafes with books/short essays by local authors so that they can get their name out. then people who are waiting around for friends at the cafes can read works from our own writers who often are overshadowed by the bigger names flooding our MPH and Borders bookstores. Coffee Club has free IS magazines lying around. why not a nice shelf of books from local authors too?
Hello national library board, could we do something like this as part of your "speak good english" campaign? just a thought :)
2 comments:
or local authors' work sharing space alongside the club ads in free magazines? so they aren't just adazines?
or printing bits of local lit on packaging or carry bags?
or moving to a four-day work week so people can have more time to read?
possibilities! fun ideas shu!
haha i don't know about the four-day work week though. i have a feeling that establishing that may not achieve the objective of increasing reading because people will probably use the extra time to do other things like watch movies, tv, etc. Its less directed then introducing books in cafes or putting literature in visible places for people to read whilst waiting or idling.
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