New Zealand Book Month!
Thanks to New Zealand Music Month, New Zealanders are listening to, talking about and (most importantly as far as the industry is concerned) spending money on NZ CDs. In comparison, New Zealand books (barring only the Edmond’s Cook Book and Jenny Patrick’s Denniston Rose series) are sitting forlornly, gathering dust in the book stores. What is to be done? Devote a month to buying the delicious produce of our very own writers. Make it like a holiday! Give a ‘gift’ to the public (a book called The Six Pack, which promises to include tailor-made snippets of New Zealand writing, will be launched on September 18). Promote, promote, promote!
I have my reservations about this attempt to make New Zealand literature sexy. On the one hand, it’s a patronising publicity stunt, but on the other, it may be the only way to lure New Zealand’s readers away from The Da Vinci Code. Statistically, asa nation, we are notoriously neglectful of our exciting writing community. And before you get all high and mighty because you know who Maurice Gee is, and read an Owen Marshall short story at high school, I suggest you take the following quiz, to see if you fall into the category of sadly uninformed New Zealand readers.
