THE PUBLIC’S READING

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 564, 17 January 1929, Page 8

THE PUBLIC’S READING

TUERE is a popular belief that New Zealanders, pel' head of I population, are the greatest book buyers in the Empire, if not. the world, and as there is probably some foundation for the belief, New Zealand booksellers have rare opportunities for becoming acquainted with changes in the public’s literary taste. Being a completely literate country, practically all New Zealanders read something, and from the demands made, the booksellers are enabled to learn what modes of writing are in popular favour. At a civic reception to the delegates to the conference of the New Zealand Retail Booksellers’ Association held at Christchurch yesterday, it was stated that the popularity of the sex novel had waned, and in its place had grown a demand for better class novels. This is a vague, general way of speaking, and it seems that there has been nothing more than a change in literary fashion. Originally, the sex novel was not inherently and intentionally unpleasant, and many of the writers who discoursed on these themes had genuine, high-minded interest in their subjects; but some of the more impressionable members of the reading public were not imbued with the same ideas as some of the earnest writers, and with a cux-ious appetite created, the sating of it was left to a pack of literary charlatans who became deliberately unpleasant for the pocket’s sake. It was inevitable that the public should grow tired of imposture, and that accounts for the change in taste that has'taken place. Readers, bored by the chronicled introspections of neurotics, now demand free, fresh currents in their fiction, and this is why improvement in taste has been noted. No longer is there desire for wearisome psychology, and in place of that has come a healthy demand for plain story-telling. The mystery novels, so much in favour, are sufficient proof of the existence of this new appetite which will grow greater as time goes on. The simple, honest story-telling of England’s great novel periods is steadily becoming the fashion again The president of the Booksellers’ Association declared that the booksellers of New Zealand were not censors, and were prepared to supply sensational literature to those -who desired it. No cavil can be made against that; for bookselling, after all, is a business, and the supply must always be ready for whatever demand is made. He also expressed belief that" the bookseller should guide public opinion. Just how this power of guidance can be exercised is difficult to say; for the pioneer, hold enough to stock his shop with the literature people should read, would soon find himself in difficulties; and as a matter of fact scarcely any bookseller puts himself in the position of being, sacrificed for the good of literature. He is in the hands of the readers, and the advance in taste that has been made is due mainly to the hook buyers themselves.