vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #156 / Social life / Reading article...

Russians are gradually moving back to their rating as the world’s most voracious readers, say local publishers and book store owners.

Orysya Bondarenko, general director of Primorye publishing house Ussuri, said that until 1993 Russians read more books than anyone else in the world, but in 1995 they moved to the 10th from the end. Publishing houses began issuing pornography and low-taste novels to earn money. However, only ten percent of the publishing houses that emerged in 1990-1991 still exist, she said.

But 1997 became a turning point in a new direction: Publishing houses began to think about their reputations. “They think about the quality of the product and what trace they are going to leave in the history,” Bondarenko said. She noticed that in Moscow cheap novels have almost disappeared from sale.

Ussuri is one of ten Primorye publishing houses. It specializes in issuing text books and books written by Primorye authors. It’s last book — the memoirs of retired KGB officer Konstantin Grigoriev — came out late November. Voron, a publishing house organized by the Union of photoartists, prints photo albums about Primorye cities and nature.

Before perestroika when Russians read much more frequently, a standard print run was 100,000 copies. Now that printing is more expensive, people read less often, and the choice is much wider, 1,000 copies is considered an acceptable run, Bondarenko said.

In Vladivostok, book stands are almost as numerous as the ice cream or hot dogs stands. But reader demands differ depending on location. Anna Avdeyeva, a book seller at the First River market, complained that only housewives buy one to three books a day. They are interested in female authors like Jackie Collins, Sandra Brown or Elizabeth Lowell. “This is just because people come to the market for a different purpose, they are not in the books mood,” she said.

A stand on Vladivostok’s central Svetlanskaya St, is more popular. It is run by former military pilot Sergei, who refused to give his last name. He has many regulars who are interested in books on science, technology, medicine, martial arts, the economy, hypnotism, and folk lore. Customers rarely buy popular fiction at his stand, he said.

Svetlana Sidelnikova, a saleswoman in the book store Voennaya Kniga said that trade is going well. Women buy books from the series “Charm” and “Butterfly”. Young people prefer Russian science fiction and horror by Stephen King. The shop cannot satisfy a growing demand for classic authors like Pushkin and Dostoyevsky because publishing houses no longer print them often.

Svetlana Sakhno, a bookstore director who has been in the books selling business for 24 years, said that compared to ten years ago, the choice is bigger but demand is less. Still, readers have become more interested in Russian and Soviet writers like Valentin Pikul and Pyotr Proskurin, who describe Russia’s history in their novels. “No book is left here. All are eventually bought,” she said.