Last night I had the great pleasure of sitting on the panel for the question time session that concluded Roma Tearne’s reading general election. Despite competition from a certain other debate taking place on the BBC, the discussion was lively and passionate. The assembled panellists were a diverse bunch, with very different experience of what it means to be a writer but Razia Iqbal, our host for the evening, did a great job of unifying these viewpoints into a bigger picture of where writers find themselves in today’s publishing industry.
I permitted myself an I-told-you-so when the winner of the reading election was announced. It was the unknown talents: discoveries that you make yourself, and a peek over Razia’s shoulder at the number of votes cast confirmed that the category enjoyed a healthy lead, with classics behind it in second place. I’d said to Roma in the build-up that the unknowns would be victorious on the night, something that I think demonstrates a very healthy streak in the reading tastes of those who voted. Reading is such a personal and internalised experience that people enjoy making a connection with a piece of writing from scratch, without the involvement of marketing campaigns and review coverage that tells them what opinions they should form. As long as reading remains a process of discovery in this way, the book trade should be able to find the energy and novelty required to see it through whatever grim economic realities hit it during the tenure of whichever government is elected in the real general election next week.
Ali
