Paperback novels were born on the railway platform. Now they’re dying there too.
Penguin paperbacks were the brainchild of Allen Lane, then a director of The Bodley Head. After a weekend visiting Agatha Christie in Devon, he found himself on a platform at Exeter station searching its bookstall for something to read on his journey back to London, but discovered only popular magazines and reprints of Victorian novels.
Appalled by the selection on offer, Lane decided that good quality contemporary fiction should be made available at an attractive price and sold not just in traditional bookshops, but also in railway stations, tobacconists and chain stores.
While waiting for a train yesterday I noticed that nearly every poster along the platform edge was advertising paperback novels and yet only one person was reading a book. At least 20 of the 50 or so people there were fiddling with a mobile phone.
When will these posters focus on driving bored commuters to try mobile apps, or at least make the ebook the primary offer?
