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Welcome to Reading Around the Globe, a series here on Reader Voracious Blog geared at fostering a culture of understanding in the bookish community about access to books in various countries around the world. Each post in the series highlights a full interview with one international reader. You can read more about this series here on the series master post.
An Interview with Suraj
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- What is your name? Suraj Kumar
- Blog URL? https://booksnmyself.wordpress.com
- Twitter handle? @shinysuraj30
- Where do you live? India. Northern part of India, to be a bit specific.
- Do you find that there is a culture of reading where you live? If not, tell us a bit how you came to be one! There’s very little of reading culture in the part where I live. The people in the southern part of our country are superior to us in this aspect. They have a good reading culture. But there are a few readers here as well. And I’m simply one of those.
- What kinds of books do you enjoy reading? I read all the genres except for Science Fiction & Erotica. Fantasy is my least favoured genre, but I’m trying to read more books from that genre now. My all time favourite would be Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction & of course, short stories
- Have you always been a reader? Reading happened to me, when I was in my senior secondary. I enjoyed reading comics as a kid, while traveling, but had little access to them. I entered the world of books when I was frustrated from my academics (Chemistry is what bothered me the most). My text books of English provided a respite to me then. And I started going to library too. It was at the age of 17, then, that I read my first Hardy Boys book. Two years later, I found myself to be reading books regularly. I read Alice in the first year of my college. Having discovered my interest in reading Literature, I abandoned Science and opted for English literature in my College and now I’m pursuing Masters in English Literature, where reading is a crucial part of my course.
- Do you also read books published in your native language/published locally to you? If so, tell us a bit about what kinds of books are published in your country! I read books only in English, which isn’t my native language. About the books that are published here, I would say there is a plethora of them. Publishing a book isn’t a task these days. And to be honest, most of these books aren’t worth it.
- Are there libraries where you live? If so, what kinds of books can you find there? Are you able to get the books that you want? There are no libraries in my hometown. My school had a good one, but I hardly went there until the last of my school years. The city where I’m living now has a couple of libraries. Even the one at my university is great. There are all kind of books there. But I seldom go there. I prefer having my own copies.
- How prevalent are English published books where you live in bookstores? (For example, books printed by HarperCollins.) These are very relevant. Getting these isn’t a task here because publishers like HarperCollins, Bloomsbury, Hachette, etc have their offices in India. So most of the books published by them are available here.
- Do you use NetGalley or Edelweiss to request electronic galleys for review? If so, what kind of success rate would you estimate for you personally? No I don’t use these. I read only physical copies.
- Do you experience hurdles or barriers to access for the kinds of books that you read? Please explain if so. There are some barriers. Firstly, most of the international publishers don’t send books over here. Some are willing to send ebooks but I’m not up for those. But I’m in touch with a couple of international publishing houses who send books easily to India.
- If you could make one change to the publishing landscape, what would you do? Maybe publishers should select reviewers to be sent books to, carefully by assessing the quality of the reviews being written. Most of the times, it’s like having a full database of bloggers to whom books are a sent just like that. Publishers should also see reviews not just as a means of increasing sales of the books, but as something quite crucial to this industry. A review means much more to us than to the publishers.
- Help other international bloggers out… What resources do you use to obtain the books that you want to read? For the review copies, I usually get in touch in with the publicity people of the publishing houses. Sometimes they reply, sometimes they don’t. For my own purchases, I always go for online stores. Amazon is my preferred platform.
- Do you have any other experiences as a reader around the world that you would like to share? Can’t think of anything to share here.
Please note that all experiences reflected in the interviews are personal and are not meant to generalize what reading access is like in each country. If you are interested in participating please DM me on Twitter.
Read More Reading Around the Globe Interviews
Argentina
Consu @ papereyedgirl
Australia
Ellyn @ allonsythornraxxbooks
Greyson @ Use Your Words
Bangladesh
Maria @ mariahossainblog
Belgium
Inge @ Of Wonderland
Wesley @ Outsiders and Misfits
Canada
Catherine @ This One is for the Books (Toronto)
Kristina @ Books and Dachsunds (New-Brunswick)
Shania @ Book Princess Reviews (Quebec)
Chile
Maria @ bookish4life
Denmark
Catherine @ Bees and Books
Silje @ inkedbybooks
England
Clo @ Cuppa Clo
Olly @ Criminolly
France
Emma @ Mengueis De Livres
Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books
Germany
Silvia @ Silvia Reads Books
Hungary
Veronika @ Reading is Dreaming with Open Eyes
Indonesia
Carolina @ fictionologyst
Petrik @ Novel Notions
India
Himani @ Books&Sstuff
Nandini @ Unputdownable Books
Prags @ The Inked In Book Blog
Sumedha @ The Wordy Habitat
Suraj @ Books N Myself
Italy
Angela @ Books of a Shy Girl
Camilla @ Reader Attic
Kuwait
Devyn Jase @ devynjase.com
Mexico
Jossie @ thebookdragoncorner
Mozambique
A Restless Traveler
The Netherlands
Annemieke @ A Dance With Books
Esther @ Bite into Books
Luci @ Lunar Luci Books
Marco @ Barely a Blogger
Michelle @ Michelle Likes Things
Nigeria
Chinelo @ Booked_Unicorn
Norway
Julie @ StrixAlucoBooks
Palestine
Hamad @ thebookprescription
Pakistan
Nargis @ Literary Nerd’s Musings
Philippines
Aimee @ Aimee Always
Alexia @ Bookworm Daydreamer
Gel @ Whimsy Wanders
Justine @ bookishwisps
Kate @ Your Tita Kate
Rain @ Bookdragoninsm
Shealea @ Shut Up, Shealea
Portugal
Marta @ The Book Mermaid
Rita @ Bookish Rita
Romania
Dianthaa @ Dianthaa Dabbles
Puerto Rico
Yani @ Read & Create
Rwanda
Annie @ Sunflower Bookshelf
Singapore
Taasia @ libraepaintspages
Slovenia
Para @ Other Worlds Reviews
South Africa
DB @ DB’s Guide to the Galaxy
Switzerland
Elisa @ bookishexpat
United Arab Emirates
Nicka @ Wander with Nicka
Zimbabwe
Sakhile @ Sakhile Whispers
Please note that all experiences reflected in the interviews are personal and are not meant to generalize what reading access is like in each country. If you are interested in participating please DM me on Twitter or send me a message on Discord.
💖 If you like the work that I do here at Reader Voracious, consider fueling my pumpkin spice latte and black tie addiction by buying me a ko-fi! ☕
Interesting! I love how different things are for people who are all connected by this love for reading thread!
Me too, and thanks so much for reading!
Thanks a lot Kaleena for this. I really appreciate all the efforts that you’re putting in, to bring out a flavour of reading experiences across the globe.
You’re welcome Suraj, and thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences!
Someone from India! Is this a first in this series? It seems like we have a lot of Filipino/Filipina bloggers, which is an interesting thing to note.
Suraj is the first interview from India, but I do have a couple more coming up in the next few months! I definitely got a lot of responses from the Philippines and Netherlands, mainly because a lot of my readers when this first launched live there!
It was so nice meeting Suraj here! It’s awesome that some of the big book publishing companies have offices in India, so books are more accessible! 💕
I was surprised to see how many publishing houses have offices in India, I think that is really great!
I love this series. It’s so interesting to get to know how the bookish life is in other parts of them world. Though booktube I know almost only how it’s in US/Canada, UK and Australia.
Thank you so much for your comment, and I am so glad you like this series! And now that you mention it, booktube DOES seem to be dominated by US/UK/AUS readers, which is a shame
Reblogged this on Books N Myself and commented:
Reading around the Globe
Ah! What a freakin’ neat series to do!!!! I’m so glad to read about someone not in an English speaking country, this rocked my world, I’m now fangirling over this lol. Can’t wait for the next one, and it was really so interesting to read about Suraj’s experiences with reading and how things are in his part of the world. <3
Thank you so much, and I am glad you enjoyed Suraj’s post!
Glad to have an Indian reader here 🙂 I am a fellow Indian too and I agree with everything Suraj said. The part to which we belong i.e the northern part of India isn’t that focused on reading. Reading for us was only what we read in schools. But I am glad that the scenario is changing now 🙂
Yes, we do have big publishing houses here, but the problem is they are not that accessible to all the cities. Most of the titles they offer to review are Indian ones which are not good most of the times. Also, people with a big following has more reach.
but yeah, we are in better position than most of the countries 🙂
Thanks so much for chiming in, Sim! I am so happy to hear that things are changing there though; although it’s a bummer that even with some publishing houses there it isn’t as good as you would think.
I love this series, Kal! I love seeing how literature is experienced differently throughout the globe. I find it incredibly interesting that there’s a difference even in different parts of the same country, like Suraj mentioned. I can’t wait to see who you’ll have next on your blog.
Thank you so much Ruby, I am really happy that you are enjoying this series!