Reading in ... India

       Okay, this is a headline that I could probably dig up every other day, in a different newspaper in a different nation each time: yes, it's that old standard, Critics regret death of reading habit.
       This report happens to be by Aloke Chatterjee, in the Hindustan Times.
       Part of the fun in pointing to these pieces is that they are also reliably full of silly quotes -- and this one starts out with a beauty:

Literary stalwarts regretted the diminishing habit of buying and reading books, a fact reflected in the lack of values among the youth of today.

       The kids of today ! A line that never gets tired, generation after generation after generation .....
       Here too we find insights such as:

Vajpayee regretted, that the reading public has failed to develop a resistentative taste with the result, that globally, pygmies were at the top everywhere.

       Blame the reading (and/or non-reading) public, that's the ticket !

       On the other hand, there are some publishing successes -- books people buy and read ! -- in India which maybe make you wonder: in The Hindu Jaya Bhattacharji Rose reports on the Metro Reads phenomenon (I've mentioned that new Penguin Books (India) imprint before, too), in Easy urban reads.
       The piece is a bit ... breathless ("It now boasts of its own logo !") -- and it's not exactly reassuring to read:

With a target audience of 18-35 year olds, it does tend to blur the lines between young adult and trade fiction, and yet, it has created a neat little identity of its own.