THE JAKARTA POST
Inexpensive books and succeeding in the future
Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Washington, D.C. | Wed,
05/11/2011 9:55 PM | Opinion
I
had mixed feelings when Borders bookstore finally closed their outlet
on the corner of L and 19th streets opposite my workplace a week ago. I
had spent hours sitting in its café and between its shelves, browsing
and reading from the huge collection.
But, in the four weeks
before the closure, I visited the store every other day to take
advantage of the fire sales with discounts of 20 percent that then rose
to 40, 50, 60 and 80 percent in the last five days.
Longtime
Washingtonians, however, said to shed no tears. They recalled that the
arrival of Borders and Barnes & Noble, both giant American
bookstore chains, on Washington’s streets one or two decades ago led to
the closure of many independent bookstores.
Borders has become
victim to the fierce book market it helped to shape. It filed for
bankruptcy in February and plans on closing 200 of its 600 outlets in
the US and abroad.
More Americans buy their books online, from
Amazon.com and Borders and Barnes & Noble’s web sites. And, there
is the growing migration to the digital world, with more people reading
books on the Kindle, the iPad and other portable digital book readers.
One
thing I learned since coming here early this year on a research program
is that few people in the US pay full price for their books; only
visitors or those who feel strongly about supporting their local
independent bookstores do. For avid readers, there are many ways of
getting your books aside from library loans.
For best-selling fiction and non-fiction, major department stores sell books at
up to 60 percent off the cover price.
For
more specialized or older books, check out Borders and Barnes &
Noble. If you’re a loyal customer, membership confers large discounts
and point awards that entitle you to more discounts in the future.
Online
stores, and don’t forget the biggest one of all, Amazon, offer generous
discounts like free shipping within the US and awards to build customer
loyalty. Check out their used book section. I was amazed at the
selection, including many out-of-print titles.
Most are
reasonably priced as well. The listing indicates the book’s condition
and where it will be shipped from. Put the book in a virtual shopping
cart, enter your credit card number and it will be delivered in just a
few days.
Most books I need for my research (on Indonesia)
were bought this way. For example, I bought a good-as-new copy of
Robert Hefner’s 2000 Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in
Indonesia online.
Check out the regular book sales at your
local library. Early in April, the Arlington Public Library, down the
corner from my rented apartment, had a sale that lasted three days.
Secondhand books were going for 50 cents, US$1, $2 and $4 apiece. On
the last day, they were half the marked prices.
These book
sales, surprisingly, offer a wide selection. My wife and I bought over
30 titles, not so much because we needed them but more because they
were too good to pass up.
At 50 cents or a dollar apiece, we
see it as renting the books. We will donate most of them to the library
before it holds its next sale. You’re not just recycling books; you’re
recycling knowledge and the wisdom contained in those pages.
America
is heaven for avid readers, writers and researchers. Not only does it
have one of the widest selections, but books are accessible and
affordable for most pockets through discount plans, used book sales and
recycling arrangements.
It is no wonder the United States
consistently ranks highest in the world in terms of the number of books
published. The widespread usage of English globally helps its case and
many of the books are exported as well as sold domestically.
The
United States is strongly represented at the top of global university
rankings. The Times Higher Education put four US universities in the
top 5, and 13 in the top 20. The QS ranking puts two universities in
the top 5, but 14 in the top 20.
What is puzzling, however, is
the weak correlation between these achievements and the academic
performance of American students globally. Survey after survey
indicates that the US education system is rapidly falling behind many
other countries.
A recent test of 15-year-olds worldwide
conducted by the Program for International Students Association ranked
Americans between 15th and 25th in science, reading and mathematics,
hardly reflecting the US’s global preeminence.
Mindful of the
long-term implications of this decline, President Obama made education
the centerpiece of his state of the union speech in January.
He
made a passionate plea to Congress to spare investment in education,
along with spending on health care, from the axe as the nation
struggles to cut its huge federal budget deficit.
Obama
invoked the “Sputnik Moment” in calling for more investment in
education and technological innovation to restore America’s supremacy,
just as it did in beating the Soviet Union in the race to the moon.
Can
the United States succeed in the future once again? It will take more
than books to pull it off, but at least Americans, in this race, still
have the easiest access to a wide range of great books compared with
people in most other countries. Take it from this short-term visiting
writer: It all starts with reading.
The writer is a fellow at the East-West Center in Washington, D.C. and a senior
editor at The Jakarta Post.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/05/11/inexpensive-books-and-succeeding-future.html
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