The last Thursday of the month is coming, and once again, another ABC (Accra Book Club) gathering. This month an Italian theme, with John Berendt’s “The city of falling angels”. I haven’t finished it yet, which is not surprising as I take longer to read non-fiction. More later.
Month: February 2009
Buying as if in times of scarcity
For many years I hardly bought any books while in Ghana, except occasionally at either the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST) or University of Ghana (Legon) bookshops. If I was lucky enough to attend the Ghana book fair, which usually was held every couple of years from the mid 1990s, that was another possibility. Somehow I didn’t feel the lack of bookshops so dreadfully because of working in an organisation which not only had libraries as part of its key mission, but also had the funds to stock them reasonably well.
The books scene in Accra is not that great, but at least the options are expanding – slowly. However I realise that my buying habits have been very much formed by scarcity – of money and of goods. For so many years one had to make choices that meant if you didn’t buy something immediately, the chances were that it wouldn’t be there the next time you visited the same shop. And this didn’t just apply to books, though this is what I am writing about now.
Abundance is of course relative. Ghana has yet to have the equivalent of a Waterstones or Barnes and Noble or Borders, and most bookshops continue to aim at the academic market – whether for the younger children, those in secondary school or those in some form of tertiary education. Which leaves those of us interested in fiction or more general reading somewhat in the lurch. Or rather challenges us to read more “out of the box”?
My problem is that I have a lot of books to read – more than 50 at last count – but I find myself increasingly unable to resist buying more to add to my collection. Part of it is that I like the look and feel of new books, but part is also that I am worried that I don’t buy a particular title now, that I won’t be able to get it the next time I come – in say two to three weeks. So the worry about scarcity continues to influence me for a long time after it is really and truly necessary.
Another bookshop coming to Accra?
Twice in the last week there have been full-page ads in the Daily Graphic for staff of a new bookshop opening in April 2009. In a rather typical style for some ads here it doesn’t give the name of the company, which continues to annoy me – even after all these years! It has been explained to me that some of the reasons for this include: wishing to avoid a huge number of personal visits to any organisation/institution (all of which would take up time to deal with, even if they are handled at reception level), anonymity providing a filter, in that those who apply would be genuinely interested in a “post” rather than the organisation and of course just trying to avoid a lot of fairly useless applications which don’t even meet the qualifications, but again are lured by the attraction of the company.
Still, it is pretty interesting, and I did fire off an email asking for more details – but I strongly suspect that will get lost in a black hole of employment emails.
I suspect it will be oriented to academic institutions and that type of clientele, which will be a help at work, but may not satisfy some of my personal interests!
We shall see.
Accra books and things 