Why do you buy books?

Because you saw the movie version of the book? Or perhaps you saw it in your favourite celebrity’s hands? Does it matter?

DID you know that Edward Tulane is now famous because of a Korean drama?” Kit, the best bookseller in the known universe, said to me in an e-mail.

She was referring to You Who Came From The Stars, a Korean mini-series about an alien who, in one episode, is seen reading Kate DiCamillo’s The Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane. Apparently, about 30,000 copies of the book were sold after that episode aired in South Korea. And it seems like Malaysian fans of the TV series are also buying DiCamillo’s amazing story of love, faith and heartbreak.

Well, that’s a good thing, right?

But Kit isn’t too sure it is. “Don’t you think it’s sad,” she wrote, “that people may buy it but may not appreciate it?”

Kit said, “While it’s always great to sell more books, and there is a possibility that the adult who buys the book will read it or give it to a kid who will love it, it feels very much like what happens when someone dies, and their books suddenly sell like hotcakes.”

I guess her sentiments are what set her apart from most booksellers in Malaysia. Granted, she doesn’t own the bookstore she works at and so doesn’t have to worry about making a profit, paying the rent and all those other tiresomely practical things. For a business owner, selling books pays the bills and to hell with why people are buying the books.

Oh, but I do know bookshop owners who make the effort to engage with customers, who care what they read and what they think about what they read.

However, these booksellers, Kit included, aren’t about to turn away a customer just because he regards Edward Tulane as merchandise and a prop rather than great literature.

I understand the frustration, though. It’s like when I kept telling Elesh, my son, to read Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and he ignored me (for years), only to clamour for the book when the movie version was announced. (He acted like he’d never heard of the book before, and he probably hadn’t – what Mama says is just so much noise, and quite easily ignored!)

But Elesh does read and he appreciates good books (he loved Ender’s Game, the book; hated the movie). He’s just at that age when social media and his peers catch his attention more than anything his parents could ever say or do.

I know Kit isn’t averse to selling more books. She’s a practical person and she knows that it would be dumb to be fussy about the reason why people are buying books. It’s just that when you love reading as much as Kit does, it’s sad to see books being treated like a fashion accessory.

But then, for us book lovers books ARE the ultimate fashion statement, but not because they look pretty (well, they do, but it’s often an emotional response and nothing to do with aesthetics), but because we are so hopelessly in love with the way they make us feel. We want book-lined walls, but we’re not concerned with colour-coordinating the spines, or re-binding the volumes in matching leather jackets. We swoon at the sight of men/women reading in cafés because of what it says about their minds, not because it makes them look cute (smart is always sexy, so long as obnoxious isn’t part of the equation).

Our relationship with books makes us sensitive to the way books are viewed by others. We feel protective and we take it personally when our favourite titles aren’t loved as much as we think they deserve. It seems we feel slighted when someone misses the point of our favourite stories, or doesn’t share our enthusiasm about favourite characters or authors.

We act all sensible and say things like, “It’s OK, we can’t all like the same things. It’s just not your type of book,” but we secretly raise an eyebrow and think, “Hah! I always knew there was something wrong with you.”

I wouldn’t, however, say it makes me sad that people are buying Edward Tulane and not appreciating it. I think it’s laughable that people buy a book just because they’ve seen it in featured in a TV show, but I think it’s great if it means more money for DiCamillo (so she can write more of her excellent books). I think some of these people who have bought the book must have tried reading it, and we can’t say for sure that they haven’t appreciated it.

I’ve always found it hard to put into words why I connect with particular books. It’s hard to predict if I will like something, and if I do, it’s sometimes impossible to describe the reaction I have to it. I’ve met most of my favourite titles by chance. I’ve come across them at jumble sales, been given them as gifts, needed to read them for work or school.

Some I’ve started out hating and ended up loving. Some have grown on me over years of getting to know them, and learning something new with every re-read.

With some it’s been love at first read. And there have also been those I used to think were wonderful and don’t like so much any more. Yes, I’ve fallen out of love with as many books as I have men, but at least with the books, it’s always been completely amicable.

I think it’s OK if people buy books because of the movie version, or because the author’s just died, or if their favourite K-pop star’s been seen reading it. The more books are sold, the more chance of them being read. It’s one way forward and who are we to say that it’s the right or wrong way.

Daphne Lee is a writer, editor, book reviewer and teacher. She runs a Facebook group called The Places You Will Go for lovers of all kinds of literature. Write to her at star2@thestar.com.my.