You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
A second-hand bookseller in Hay-on-Wye has called for a ban on Kindles and other e-book readers at the literary festival, which opened yesterday [31st May].
According to the Daily Mail, bookseller Derek Addyman, who owns three second-hand bookshops in the town, Addyman Books, Addyman Annexe and Murder and Mayhem, has called the devices the "enemy".
Addyman said: "Kindles have no place at this festival which is supposed to be a celebration of the written word—and books. Booksellers definitely want them banned. You see people walking around with Kindles and they are like robots in another world. Books are sociable and people stop and talk to each other about them. Kindles are just a phase and they won't last. They are our enemy."
He added: "Without the support of people going into these shops, we won't have any independent sellers left in a few years."
His crime fiction shop, Murder and Mayhem, is hosting a window display featuring a gravestone next to a picture of an e-reader.
Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival, said: "There will be a footfall of 250,000 readers in Hay over the next 10 days and these people buy books in all formats. Anything that encourages people to read in any format is fantastic."
The festival runs until 10th June in the Welsh border town.