Book sales prove printed books are still popular

Remember when they said a combination of e-books and the internet would kill off paper books and the printed word?

And most of us believed it? A lot of us bought Kindles and suchlike in anticipation of the impending apocalypse.

We’ve just had a charity book sale in Whanganui, and by the numbers of people attending and buying, real books are doing just fine, thank you. Not just the hardto-come by and possibly valuable collectibles, but a vast array of nonfiction books on every subject as well as huge numbers of novels by authors current and faded. St John holds regular book sales in Whanganui and they always do well. Our second-hand and charity book shops in Whanganui are holding their own.

It’s not only older people still enamoured with the printed word on real paper: a lot of young people have been seen stocking up on books. So what happened to the prophesied demise of hardbacks, paperbacks and magazines? Was it real and still to come, or was it a giant miss?

Vera Lynn remembered

Vera Lynn has died: she was 103. Regardless of the length of her innings, a valuable link with an important part of our past has gone.

“Before my time” say those who think yesterdays are dead, gone and of no consequence, but the fact is, Vera Lynn was representative of a time that made our time what it is. That she had her heyday, her greatest hits years before I was born makes her no less relevant.

In fact, her time, the time of her contemporaries, gave us many important lessons and those who were there formed we who are now.

Vera was an entertainer, a singer of patriotic songs, earning her the title, “the Forces’ sweetheart”. She and her colleagues sang, danced and told jokes to members of the armed forces of Britain and her colonies, distracting them from the dread of tomorrow and the horrors of yesterday.

She sang about bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover, declared we’ll meet again some sunny day and told us about that nightingale in Berkeley Square. All while war raged across Europe and through the Pacific.

Yes, she performed and recorded for years after World War II, enjoying a long and fruitful career, but for many she remained a strong, musical link to a time when people came together to support each other and the forces overseas.

Election looming

We have been distracted, our minds, bodies and ultra clean hands elsewhere in a year that would normally find a lot more It’s not only older people still enamoured with the printed word on real paper: a lot of young people have been seen stocking up on books. news activity and private thought around an important triennial event. This year we will vote in an election to decide who runs New Zealand. Did it slip your mind? Hardly surprising with everything else that’s been going on.

While the world struggles with Covid-19, other things still happen. People work, crimes are committed, international events appear in smaller headline font, global warming is still a threat and statues bear the brunt of sanctimonious violence.

Meanwhile, a small number of citizens prepare for an election. They have been meeting, planning and will soon start campaigning in earnest, hoping their voices will be heard above the white noise of everything else.

Distractions could have a huge negative effect on this election.

Voter turnout could be low and predictions by the usual academics could be far from accurate, presenting a real challenge for our parliamentary candidates of all parties. In a time when our thoughts are elsewhere, candidates have to attract our attention, get us to listen to what they have to say and then actually vote accordingly on the day.

Fortunately we are free to attend political meetings without social distancing and the previous fear of catching something nasty, but the whole election thing just doesn’t seem that important at the moment, does it? It has that “same old” feeling about it, with its importance and relevance overshadowed by other national and global events.

Is that what happened at Donald Trump’s Oklahoma rally? Did people forget it was on? Or was it really a lefty conspiracy to keep people away, as he claims.

I think people just have other things on their minds, and while the world is in pandemic turmoil, Black Lives Matter demonstrations clog the streets, Greta Thunberg reminds us she’s still here, history gets a makeover, the planet keeps heating up, New Zealanders get upset that our borders are not really “sealed” and sporting events make a comeback, how many of us can shift our attention to a comparatively small number of people who want to be elected into Government? It somehow seems so trivial in comparison.

But, the fact remains. Election day looms, and with it, the potential fate of the country over the next three years and probably beyond. As voters we must rouse our overstimulated senses to face our important political duty, listen to our candidates, find what is important in all the things they say and use it to make a judgment on voting day.