Chilling mystery: Why don’t Mexicans read books?

From the Christian Science Monitor, an interesting read on the problems faced by bookstores and publishers in Mexico, where sales of 3,000 make a book a bestseller.

February 16, 2005 by Uncategorized 3

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3 Responses

  1. kmhess says:
    February 16, 2005 at 7:22 am

    Mystery solved
    “The new novel by Chilean-born author Roberto Bolaño, “2666,” sells for 650 pesos ($58) at Un Lugar de la Mancha, an independent shop; at Gandhi, one of the largest chains, it can be had for 455 pesos ($40). But even that 43 percent savings is deceiving: In Argentina, with its larger concentration of readers, that same book can be had for the equivalent of $23.”

    For a country with 25% the GDP per capita of the US, books cost about twice as much there as they do in Argentina (and in the US, for that matter). Price fixing probably will help this problem – I bet they would find more readers if books cost about $5.

    Reply
  2. Amke says:
    February 16, 2005 at 9:07 pm

    …what about
    libraries? do they have libraries and what are their states in Mexico?

    Reply
  3. Gilmoid says:
    February 23, 2005 at 2:04 am

    Re:Mystery solved
    Perhaps the booksellers should have standing orders with Taiwanese book pirates–that would certainly lower the costs.
    Jobs are scarce and low-paying in Mexico so books are a luxury few lower class(economically) people can afford.
    I’m Mexican, and I read (but I live in California). In 1965 (I was 16) I astonished my classmates with the revelation that my personal library contained over 600 books.
    But then again, I was reading Poe, Lovecraft, and–God help me!–John-Paul Sarte when I was 9, so I was the exception in my barrio.

    Reply

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