READING TASTES

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27040, 15 May 1953, Page 3

READING TASTES

Bookseller Notes Preferences

MEN THE PRINCIPAL CUSTOMERS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LONDON, May 13. Bloodthirsty thrillers are bought by old ladies, romantic love stones ! by soldiers, and girls’ ' school stories! by well-dressed business* men, said 1)1 iss Christina Foyle, addressing the Royal Society of Arts. “One bank clerk has been coming into Foyle’s during his lunch time for the last 17 years,” she said. ‘’He has never yet bought a book, never taken a book, and no one disturbs him. He gets very annoyed if we sell the book he is reading, and we have to find him another copy. “Of the vast number of people who go into the firm’s bookshop, threequarters are men. Women still regard books as reckless extravagance. “The longer a customer takes' to choose a book the cheaper it will be. Expensive books are bought quickly, while in the grip of temptation. “There is a strong' feeling in the trade that books on certain subjects are lucky, such as those on doctors, dogs, or Abraham Lincoln. Those with the word ‘valley’ in the title always seem to be popular. “But despite the wide sale of certain fiction, it is really good household material that keeps the publishers and booksellers solvent.” Miss Foyle added that the demand for finely-bound books is increasing. Contrary to popular belief, she said, wireless and television did not have a detrimental effect on reading. "It ■is difficult to think of any change or invention of recent years that nas done so much to encourage reading. Not only do we find that a book, once broadcast or televised, enjoys a large and immediate sale, but all books written by that author are wanted, and one is bound to conclude that the reading of books generally becomes more and more the averake men’s pleasure as the result of wireless and television. It is the same with films.”