Real Life Or New Age, Readers Are Buying It

The Age

Monday September 6, 1993

MARGARET COOK

Australians are reading more biographies, more self-help books, and more local writers, according to booksellers. And despite the recession people are still buying books, although they usually wait for the paperback rather than pay $40 for the hardcover.

The official bookseller for the Melbourne Writers Festival _ which begins today _ Dymocks Book Department Store, has found that non- fiction has become more popular over the past three to five years.

People are also reading more widely, with men buying cookery books and women reading books on business management.

The department store's manager, Ms Mary Dalmau, said yesterday that biographies, especially about Australians, sold extremely well. People also read more Australian fiction, and not only the prize-winning writers.

She said self-help, motivational and health books were extremely popular with men and women of all ages, partly because the recession had made people question what was important in their lives.

The national book buyer for Myer and Grace Brothers, Ms Bev Friend, said sales had increased for motivational books, including ones on natural therapy, New Age, how to make money, and business.

A former president of the Australian Booksellers Association and part- owner of Readings Book Stores, Mr Mark Rubbo, said he believed people were looking for books that helped them find answers to the way they should live.

Fiction was still popular, he said, but it was books like the autobiography `Wild Swans', and `Women Who Run with the Wolves' that were ``phenomenal best-sellers". There had also been a great deal of interest in Peter Singer's new book on ethics, `How Are We to Live?'.

The marketing manager at Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Mr Mark Zocchi, said well-written biographies, self-help, do-it-yourself and craft books sold well.

``There's also a lot of interest in Australiana and Australian fiction," he said. ``People want to know about their own country and writers.

The Writers Festival begins today at the Malthouse, South Melbourne.