Cultivating reading habit one book at a time

As appeared in Features
The Brunei Times -- Feb 27, 2008

SHE has been collecting books all her life. Her abode is a trove of literary treasures, something to come home to from a hard day's work, something that lifts her spirits when she's down.

But for Datin Paduka Fatimah Husain, the books called out not merely to be read by her and her immediate family but by the populace of Brunei Darussalam. It was such a loud call that she took the only logical step in that pursuit, which was to open her own bookstore.

"I started out with religious and motivational books," Datin Paduka Fatimah says of her shop in Berakas opened in 2002 under the name of Asfar Enterprise, which also published a local women's lifestyle magazine called Seri.

The bookshop grew but the magazine didn't. The last publication was in 2005. Datin Paduka Fatimah cites distribution among other problems for its demise and she split her operations into two, renaming her shop Booklane in 2006.

Despite expanding to include other genres of books, it's a small operation, with limited shelf space -- something Datin Paduka Fatimah sees as a kind of challenge in itself to stock. "I can't compete with the other, bigger bookshops, so I try to bring in books which they don't have.

"I want to concentrate on books that appeal to the academia, to women, to readers with special interests," she says, pointing out biographies, literary discourses and even books on journalism on the shelves.

Why not sell novels instead of taking the risk of stocking books people might not buy?

"It's important to have options, so I try to bring in books based on sellability, convenience, knowledge and also affordability," she says, pointing out that some of her decisions have borne fruit.

Of course, it takes a reader to appreciate what other people might like to read. "Yes," she says with a smile. "I have to read all the books first, not only to see whether they are good but also to vet for unsuitable content."

One example of unsuitable content she found in a book for teens, which she promptly pulled from the shelves.

But doesn't that put a crimp in her bottom line? "I can't think purely as a businesswoman," says the mother of two daughters and grandmother of three. "As a society, we have to work together with parents to ensure the minds of Brunei's young people are not corrupted by unsuitable material."

This is especially so as Datin Paduka Fatimah is focusing on supplying books to schools, relying on special orders to shore up the rather sad state of sales in the current business climate. "The reading culture here, as it is in other parts of the region like Malaysia, is not at a satisfactory level.

"The book business is not at all encouraging now. But from the response of my customers, I have the motivation to go ahead, and in the near future I plan to increase my staff and move to bigger premises.

"There are times when I feel half-hearted about the business, so I go back to my books, open them up, and get motivated all over again."

Describing as "love-hate" her relationship with books and the selling of them, Datin Paduka Fatimah, who opted for early retirement in 1998, doesn't however have plans to quit the business, although she says she dreams of putting her feet up in two years' time, when she reaches "a certain age".

"But I can't really sit still," she says with a laugh.

This explains why after years in civil service, from being a presenter on RTB to a Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka officer to the foreign service, Datin Paduka Fatimah is going all out to present her books and sourcing services at the Book Fair which opens at the International Convention Centre in Berakas today.

From ensuring that the books are arranged in a certain way to advising her staff against sitting down and looking lazy -- she wants them to generate interest among the public in her two booths -- and preparing forms for special orders, Datin Paduka Fatimah is not ready to give in to the "hate" part of the relationship.

"I want to share the habit of reading with the Brunei people," she says simply of her motives.

And that is a good enough reason as any.