Books and access to culture
Starbucks is the rendezvous point for foreigners in Himeji. And also for Japanese people who get along with them.
Last Saturday I met N. there... again I should say, since I don't know anybody who goes there more than him. As usual, he was reading a book, so I asked what was the story about.
It was something about a girl with two boyfriends, and there comes a time when she has to choose one. She chose and married that guy, but years later she meets the other boyfriemd again and he is with a girl that looks exactly like her.
Talking to her, they find out they're the same person, splitted from the point where she had to choose between her boyfriends in the part. And they decide to change places for a time...
That's what I remember. It's surreal, but maybe Japanese like this kind of things... ah, it's a Japanese book by the way, but I forgot the title.
The price was around 400 JPY, what's pretty standard for this kind of book. But he also showed another one for which he paid only 100 JPY... It's used, but not that different from a brand new.
I was astonished by that, and we started talking about prices and availability of books in Japan, Brazil and US.
"One of the ways to measure the education or culture level of an area" he said "is to count the number of libraries and bookshops around." I'd add a little more. And variety of titles is one point too... but I have to concede that's a good point. And Brazil is far behind in this point.
He also mentioned that the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun have the largest number printed by day in the world... Although I'd like to ckeck it, I somehow wouldn't be completely surprised if it was true... There're incentives for people to read here. And most do. One of the consequences of that is that books can become cheaper with good paper quality because they can be printed in large quantities. That's what happens in Japan, where a novel can be cheaper than a good meal and many technical books are way cheaper than a Tokyo-Osaka trip.
There's some kind of concern about copyright of books in Brazil. Especially technical ones that are too expensive and many students can't afford. Here this issue is starting to appear (not surprisingly, the manga industry is the one more affected), but is still way less concerning as far as I know. I believe that making books and culture more available isn't a way only to solve this problem there, but to improve educational level too...
I've posted about it already. Sorry for doing it again, but wanted to input some new data.
Last Saturday I met N. there... again I should say, since I don't know anybody who goes there more than him. As usual, he was reading a book, so I asked what was the story about.
It was something about a girl with two boyfriends, and there comes a time when she has to choose one. She chose and married that guy, but years later she meets the other boyfriemd again and he is with a girl that looks exactly like her.
Talking to her, they find out they're the same person, splitted from the point where she had to choose between her boyfriends in the part. And they decide to change places for a time...
That's what I remember. It's surreal, but maybe Japanese like this kind of things... ah, it's a Japanese book by the way, but I forgot the title.
The price was around 400 JPY, what's pretty standard for this kind of book. But he also showed another one for which he paid only 100 JPY... It's used, but not that different from a brand new.
I was astonished by that, and we started talking about prices and availability of books in Japan, Brazil and US.
"One of the ways to measure the education or culture level of an area" he said "is to count the number of libraries and bookshops around." I'd add a little more. And variety of titles is one point too... but I have to concede that's a good point. And Brazil is far behind in this point.
He also mentioned that the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun have the largest number printed by day in the world... Although I'd like to ckeck it, I somehow wouldn't be completely surprised if it was true... There're incentives for people to read here. And most do. One of the consequences of that is that books can become cheaper with good paper quality because they can be printed in large quantities. That's what happens in Japan, where a novel can be cheaper than a good meal and many technical books are way cheaper than a Tokyo-Osaka trip.
There's some kind of concern about copyright of books in Brazil. Especially technical ones that are too expensive and many students can't afford. Here this issue is starting to appear (not surprisingly, the manga industry is the one more affected), but is still way less concerning as far as I know. I believe that making books and culture more available isn't a way only to solve this problem there, but to improve educational level too...
I've posted about it already. Sorry for doing it again, but wanted to input some new data.
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