“House sales have plunged, automobiles have tanked, and credit is throttled, but Spain is experiencing an unprecedented boom in books. Once the nation that read fewer books than any other in Europe, Spaniards have become voracious readers, devouring more books than ever before.”
It does seem that books are “in” these days. Certianly this week’s book fair in Madrid’s Retiro Park, pictured above, was so claustrophobicly packed with book-hunters that I could only manage 2 minutes of browsing before heading to the quiter corners of the park.
One thing I have always loved about Spanish readers is the care they take over their books. Often they are covered immediately after purchase, albeit with ugly brown paper, which makes it impossible to see what anyone is actually reading on the Metro. I wonder if this is becuase they are actually devouring “The Amorous Adventures of Don Libido”, but according to the Independent, literary taste these days is far more high-brow than that:
“Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s latest novel, El juego del Angel, soon to appear in English as The Angel’s Game, was published in April with an astronomical print run of a million, now almost exhausted. Ken Follet’s blockbuster World Without End, which is partly set in the Basque capital, Vitoria, has sold more than a million copies since it first appeared in Spain as El Mundo sin Fin last December.”
In other cultural news, I was shocked over the weekend to hear English coming out of our 14″ make-do-for-now TV. I rushed out of the kitchen to find that the cookery program being shown on TV1 was actually broadcasting a French guy speaking English without, as is the usual practice, overdubbing him badly with Spanish audio.
Instead, to my absolute amazement, Spanish subtitles flashed by underneath. Subtitles! When it is so easy to just turn down his English audio a bit and translate in Spanish over the top, leading to insanity for anyone who is acutally an English speaker and tries to listen to both languages at once.
They say that subtitles never caught on here either because there wasn’t enought literacy in Franco’s times to make them worthwhile, or because Franco could better censor the content of foreign films by cutting out the orginal dialogue and placing a censored version over the top. Perhaps it’s all this book reading that lead to their appearance on the cookery programme on Saturday night. In any case, I’d say strange times are ahead!
Pepino
9 Jun 08 at 10:26 am
I’m really surprised that reading to such an extent is only a fairly recent thing. I see so many people sat in parks reading, on the metro reading, on the bus reading, even on the gym running machine reading, that I just assumed Spain had always been a country of book fans.
I bought the Juego del Angel recently for two friends, and having just finished La Sombra del Viento myself (and having loved it) I’ll be trying out the new one myself soon too (probably when the paperback comes out). The Ken Follet one just looks way to thick for me to drag around with me, but I’ve seen loads of people clutching copies so it’s certainly popular.
Pepino
9 Jun 08 at 10:31 am
Regarding subtitles…. has anyone in Spain noticed that, when you choose to put subtitles on a programme, they’ll often just stop for a while and then start again? I thought our TV was on the blink until I saw the same thing on friend’s TVs.
It’s like the person typing them in went for a coffee and didn’t bother to press pause, just picking up at the point they returned
Tom
9 Jun 08 at 1:02 pm
Yeah but what are the high-brow titles people are reading? "The Amorous Adventures of Don Libido†sounds way better! Last time I had to commute, it seemed that half the carriage were reading Harry Potter and the Curse of the Da Vinci Code (or whatever it’s called)… I reckon that the market’s doing well because there is a hell of a lot of accessible popular fiction aimed at providing fantasies to middle-class office workers who are, quite justifiably, sick of their lives.
bill
9 Jun 08 at 2:09 pm
I’m always amazed at how people can read while standing up on the metro during rush-hour. Since it is usually women with books in their hands, I often wonder whether they are genuinely reading or whether they are using the books as some kind of prop to focus their attention on, thus avoiding the gaze of the wierdo across the carriage who has taken a fancy to them.
luke
9 Jun 08 at 4:31 pm
Is it just the houses I go to or do most Spanish people have rows of unopened books (often published by the same company in nearly identical covers) still wrapped in cellophane?
And off on a tangent…Sorry to be a downer but the image of people reading books covered in brown paper (or wallpaper) on their commute was the image I had of those who were killed on the Cercanias train bomb. I’d been on a similar Cercanias train at the same time of the morning a week before it happened. I found it admirable and endearing that these hard working people cared about their books enough to give them an extra cover (in the way I was forced to do at school). For some reason it was the image that came to me when I got news of the explosion and it made the tragic event even more poignant.
Edith
9 Jun 08 at 4:41 pm
RE turned-down English audio and Spanish voiceover: this drives me mad because the English voice in the background distracts me so much I end up missing the entire message. It’s even worse than dubbing.
German TV also uses double voices and dubbing, which is why I hardly ever watch these channels unless the original is in German.
Stephen
9 Jun 08 at 6:11 pm
When I was at school, like Luke, we used to cover our books with wallpaper or brown paper. I don’t remember it being compulsory though. It was just the thing to do where I was.
Sara
9 Jun 08 at 6:14 pm
I have the same problem with dubbing on the news! I have to concentrate really hard on the Spanish and block out the English or I never understand what they were saying.
Although, I must say that going to see dubbed movies greatly improved my Spanish listening skills.
bill
9 Jun 08 at 6:14 pm
@Luke – I’ve noticed the Spanish like to display seemingly unread sets of books as well. I guess it might be partly because the Spanish newspapers tend to give away loads of sets of “collectors editions” of books cheaply, provided you keep buying the newspaper.
It might also be because of the Spanish need to buy the dreaded “mueble” – that huge overbearing combination of wooden shelving/display cabinets/TV stand/you name it that dominates living rooms all over Spain. They need to fill up all those shelves with something!
luke
9 Jun 08 at 11:00 pm
@Bill. Yes those monstrous aparadores are ridiculous. I know a women in Madrid with a tiny salon (which I would describe as a corridor) and it is, of course, dominated by an aparador, full of glass/porcelain figurines, electronic entertainment and the inevitable unread books.
luke
9 Jun 08 at 11:01 pm
oops…’woman’…
Urgellenk
9 Jun 08 at 11:04 pm
I have to love all those hilarious Franco era myths and legends that spice up so many posts in this blog.
Ray
9 Jun 08 at 11:57 pm
The first time I went out in Madrid, back in 1999, I noticed that people DO read quite a bit more in public in Spain, and especially Madrid, (I noticed it most on the Metro.) I am glad that I noticed it before one of my fellow countrymen (USA) here in Spain mentioned the same thing to me.
That way I knew that it wasn’t just my imagination, but after he mentioned it, I really began to notice it even more.
I think reading is a great and noble trend. Especially when people read for pleasure.
As for subtitles…dubbing is for children and the blind. I am so glad that most TV stations here are broadcasting their new TDT channels in original audio.
Edith
10 Jun 08 at 12:45 am
Here is an interesting article on dubbing vs. subtitling:
http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Dubbing-and-Subtitling-THE-DUBBING-AND-SUBTITLING-INDUSTRIES.html
Edith
10 Jun 08 at 12:59 am
And more:
http://accurapid.com/journal/29movies.htm
Billy T.
10 Jun 08 at 2:56 am
Ben – I know I am off topic, but what do you think of the new Coldplay, “Viva La Vida?”
Redhand
10 Jun 08 at 8:22 am
Last time I was in Spain, watching TV on my girlfriends parents new TV with a digital box I found that you can switch to V.O for American imports and they have the subtitles in English as well if I remember. But have to agree it annoying and pointless in the long run not having subtitles on the programs.
Ben
10 Jun 08 at 8:59 am
@Bill, I think you hit the nail on the head re the combination of the free books from newspapers and the dreaded ‘mueble’!
@Billy T. – As for the Coldplay song, just heard it on last.fm, not bad!
@Redhand, hopefully our next, decent TV will let us do that!
MrMark
10 Jun 08 at 2:40 pm
One thing I loved about Spanish bar-cafes during my time there was the way 90% of them provided newpapers and/or sports papers such as Marca, As etc for reading material. A good tradition, and one I hope continues into the future. Maybe 5% of British pubs do this, although I see nowadays that if you’re rich enough to patronise the likes of Cafe Nerro/Coffee Republic, you can also read the paper there.
John Ross
10 Jun 08 at 9:07 pm
@Pepino
>> I’m really surprised that reading to such an extent is only a fairly recent thing. I see so many people sat in parks reading, on the metro reading, on the bus reading, even on the gym running machine reading, that I just assumed Spain had always been a country of book fans.
It has. You know what the press is like, they like superlatives in their headlines – if Spain isn’t top, bottom is the next best thing. In fact, looked at objectively, the (real) low literacy rate in the past was mostly a post-Civil-War legacy – there was a generation which missed out on the education train altogether (especially if they were in Republican parts of the country). My parents-in-law, for example, received literally no education beyond the age of 6, I am not exaggerating here. They were intellectually ambitious enough to get over that on their own account to a large extent, millions weren’t. Most foreign visitors would never have been aware of this, it mostly affected countryfolk, not town dwellers, and like I say it was a post-war thing. That generation doesn’t count for much demographically any more.
John Ross
10 Jun 08 at 9:17 pm
About Ben’s article, just a couple of comments
i) I have attended the Feria del Libro practically every year for the last two decades, and it has always been packed at weekends, nothing new there. The main reason is that Madrid parents are always desperate for something to do with the kids, as far as I can see.
ii) There is probably a bit of a boom in the bookselling sector, El País says stallholders think it will be a record year. I imagine it is because of lack of money, which I know sounds paradoxical. But if you can’t afford a new car, or a second home, or to have your bathroom remodelled (the top three on the Spanish how-to-spend-your-hard-earned list), suddenly you find you have actually got more money in your pocket than before.
EJ
14 Jun 08 at 12:40 pm
Subtitles; great improvement for the Spanish in particular. Look what it did for the Dutch: a smaller country than Spain but we all speak at least 3 languages and do business with every country on an equal level.
Wil they subtitle Catalan into Spanish?
Edith
14 Jun 08 at 7:33 pm
@ EJ,
Top be honest, I don’t know many Dutch people who speak ‘at least three languages’.
And on average, the Danes and the Swedes speak much better English than we do. Ever heard about ‘Dunglish’? ‘I always get my sin’. …
Edith
14 Jun 08 at 7:38 pm
Some Dunglish gems can be found here:
http://www.dunglish.nl/?p=142
Which proves that subtitles are not an adequate learning tool.
EJ
15 Jun 08 at 10:53 am
@Edith: In Holland everybody speaks a minimum of German and proper English, so that makes three. The’ I always get my sin’ joke is famous (and old…) joke, but not a representation.
Subtitling is a brilliant improvement for maintenance, and therefore an adequate learning tool.