My friend, Jeremiah Adewale just reported this very interesting incident to me. He is a student at the University of Lagos and went the other day to see his book vendor (one of those bend-down bookshops on campus where you can be guaranteed of discount sales) to find what new titles he had on offer.
While the banter went on, the bookseller suddenly stopped and asked him a question: 'Why do boys not buy books?' Now this was new to him so he prodded further. ' I know what I am saying, I have been selling books for a while now and this is my experience.'
'And girls?'
'They buy. Once in a while they stop by to pick up a novel or two.'
The discussion next went into theorizing over possible reasons for this presumed gender disparity in reading and book-buying habits?
Dear reader, where do you stand in this debate? Would be glad to know.
I buy books and I'm a man. Most of the men I know buy books and it makes me feel that the vendor in this situation has made a hasty generalization. Perhaps it has to do with the context, in a university environment, boys might likely spend more on other things than books. However, even while I was a student at Ife, I always bought books when I had money.
ReplyDeleteLolade, you got it. In fact, Jeremiah also told me that he said something like that also in his response but the vendor was adamant that he knew what he was saying and that males like him, and perhaps you and me now (who at the University of Calabar back in the decade of the 80s, used to skip meals to grow his library!)were the exception!
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