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Is There Lead in Chinese Books?

Bookselling This Week, the newsletter of the American Booksellers Association, reports that  some customers are reluctant to buy books printed in China, particularly children's titles.

So now, besides concerns about the environment that led Thomas Nelson to print its first "green" Bible, publishers must be alert that the manufacturing process for their books avoids any chemicals that may be toxic.

The fact is that book-making can be a messy and complicated process. In a Newsweek article about Amazon's release of the new Kindle reader, Bill Hill, an expert on e-reading at Microsoft, states,

We chop down trees, transport them to plants, mash them into pulp, move the pulp to another factory to press into sheets, ship the sheets to a plant to put dirty marks on them, then cut the sheets and bind them, and ship the thing around the world...

Nevertheless, the Bible reminds us in that favorite verse of publishers: "Of making many books there is no end." (Ecclesiastes 12:12)

Turkey: Atheist Publisher Under Scrutiny

Earlier this year, the horrific murders of Zirve Publishing House staff in Malatya, Turkey, reminded the world of the high cost many face in promoting their beliefs. Necati Aydin, Ugur Yüksel, and Tilmann Geske were martyred for the sake of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Now, the Associated Press reports that a publisher in Istanbul is under investigation and could face up to a year's imprisonment for promoting atheism.

Spain: Catholic Publisher Offers Text for Cell Phones

Hispanidad, a site that tracks developments in digital publishing in Spain, notes that Editorial San Pablo has partnered with a Catholic Web portal to offer Scripture verses, liturgical content, music, and additional content on a subscription basis to cell phone users.

Scanning 7,000 Books Each Day

Did you know that a Carnegie Mellon University project, the Universal Digital Library, is scanning 7,000 books each day at centers in China, India, and Egypt? The Pittsburgh-Post Gazette reports that the project has already scanned one and a half million books,  mostly in Chinese, various Indian languages, Arabic, and English.

Dr. Michael Shamos, project director, says:

Our goal is to erase socioeconomic differences in access to books. We are sure that there are brilliant people in the developing world whose knowledge is now stunted because they don't have access to all the books you and I do.

Approximately half of the books scanned still have copyright protection, but Shamos, a copyright lawyer, "believes copyright laws should change to protect only creative works written for personal entertainment, not informational texts."

Australia: Book Prices Might Rise

In late March, Borders announced that it would divest itself of stores in the U.K.,  Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Now, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that book prices may rise if the owner of Angus & Robertson's, another Australian book retailer, is allowed to purchase the Borders branches. 

Russia: Reading Declines, Especially Among Youth

According to an article in Scotland's Sunday Herald,

in the 1970s, 80% of parents [in Russia] read aloud to their     children. Today the figure is just 7%... In 1991, the year the Soviet Union imploded, 48% of young Russians systematically consumed literature. By 2005 that figure had shrunk to just 28%.

The Kremlin hopes funding television specials on classic literature will help. It has also designated the next twelve months as a "Year of Reading" and is launching a 13-year program to promote reading for youth. The decline in reading is seen as a byproduct of the social upheaval of the 1990s, but "the rise of reality TV shows and the internet has exacerbated the problem."

USA: Are Youth Reading, or Not?

To Read or Not to Read, a report released earlier this month by the National Endowment for the Arts, says,

Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier. Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of non-readers doubled over a 20-year period, from nine percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004... On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading.

Yet Patricia Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, in a press release responding to the NEA study, notes 

that sales of books written specifically for the Young Adult (YA) demographic have never been stronger, experiencing double-digit growth in recent years.  Bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, which have removed YA literature from their children’s sections and placed it into its own area, report impressive increases in sales.  “Teenagers and young adults will read books that are relevant to their lives, that can help them understand and deal with tough questions."

 

Nigeria: Publishing Industry "In Shambles"

"Bleak Publishing Houses," an article in The Economist, tells the following story:

Nigeria was once the centre of literary publishing in west Africa—not just for local companies but international houses as well. But when military rule and economic decline saw much of the middle class flee in the 1980s, the publishers left too. Today, there is no distribution network and scant demand for fiction.

In order to survive, publishers switched from literature to textbooks, certain to be bought by students and schools. Fiction is much harder to sell... more readers choose self-help and religious books that are supposed to have a more immediate pay-off.

Turkey: Trial Postponed

On Friday, November 23, 2007, Reuters reported that the trial for the April 18 slayings of the workers at Zirve Publishing House in Malatya, Turkey, was postponed until January 14, 2008. The article noted court officials said the "five defendants and their lawyers needed more time to prepare their defense."

The decision to adjourn the case was made despite the European Parliament's strong stance of the murders, in a resolution passed November 15 condemning the persecution of Christians.

China: No More Print, Says Novelist

"China's Stephen King," horror novelist Zhou Dedong, will no longer allow his books to be printed. Citing environmental concerns, the author has signed a contract to provide his novels exclusively online by Sina VIP.