Armenian readers’ interests in publisher's eyes

February 19, which marks great poet Hovhannes Tumanyan’s birthday, is celebrated in Armenia as a book gifting day.

On this occasion, Tert.am has talked to Armen Martirosyan,  the Antares Publishing House’s director, who spoke of the Armenian society’s increased interest in books over the past three years. He said most of the readers are interested in cheap children’s books and porn literature.

“People now understand that a child must by all means have a book. Parents often buy a small, relatively cheap book; they are not psychologically ready to spend money on books. I don’t mean the content by saying cheap, but if you have spent money on the content, you have benefited from the services of a good editor, pedagogue and proofreader. So the price automatically increases,” he noted. 

As for erotic fiction, which enjoys a wide popularity in the society, Martirosyan said he very often sees people searching and asking for such literature in book-stores.

“Our society today is interested in disguised erotic literature that contains no explicit word but has such a plot,” he added.

Martirosyan said the Armenian readers are also interested in detective literature, which they mostly search in the Russian language.

“We have started proposing audiobooks, especially to the public which has difficulty with reading in Armenias, but knows the oral language perfectly well,” he added.

Asked what needs to be done to increase the interest in books, the publisher stressed the importance of inspiring the society with the belief that reading makes a human being more attractive and sexy.

“Why should football be encouraged by different bookmakers, while reading shouldn’t? I am sure that reading a book is fashionable, attractive or sexy, because a woman with a book is more attractive than the one with a 2kg tomato jar or a sack with onions. Through an educated woman or man, the human being sees the continuation of his or her heirs … Knowledge can be an object of attraction, and reading a book is very sexy,” Martirosyan said.