What is A Novel Idea?

It’s the name of the library and it’s built on an idea that is practiced around the world where people don’t have to pay any membership fees because books are swapped. There is space available to sit and read, but if you want to take a book home, you have to bring one of your own in exchange.

Why did you feel there was a need to set up a library?

Social media celebrity Junaid Akram talks about his book-swapping library, A Novel Idea

We don’t have enough libraries in Karachi — or in Pakistan for that matter — and because of this we don’t have a culture of reading. What people see is what they will want to consume. I doubt you will see three libraries on your route from home to work, but you will see lots of restaurants selling burgers with every adjective from A to Z — juicy this, big that. There are malls and clothes shops. The mobile phone market is always packed. Urdu Bazaar isn’t. The crowd you see there isn’t for the books; it’s for the tyre shops nearby. There are cafes specifically designed for reading, but even there people play board games or talk. And no one goes to a cafe to read, anyway. You go to spend time with your friends, and with that in mind, it would be rude if you started reading.

In our country — and I’m talking about 85 to 90 percent of the population — we read only one book apart from academic course books and that’s the Holy Quran. We don’t even read that in our own language, so technically, we don’t actually ‘read’ any books. It’s sad that this is our attitude in the 21st century. Take me for example. I’ve never seen a bookshelf at my relatives’ homes. We need to see the books, and if we do, we might pay attention to them. If people see a library, they might say, “What’s this? Let’s check it out,” and might end up reading something that will change the way they see things.

Why choose this particular model of swapping books?

In March last year, I was travelling at the same time that a friend had had surgery and was on bed rest. She’s an avid reader so I asked if she wanted me to bring her any books that she couldn’t find here. She said she was good, thanks, but I knew lots of people had this problem of being unable to get certain books in Pakistan. I put an offer online and the response was overwhelming. I got 40 books, which was all I could carry in my luggage allowance. Unfortunately, it turned out that several titles were available here, but with our people, if you give an inch they will take a mile. They figured, hey, free book. Why bother checking the local shops if this guy is offering to get it for me? I couldn’t check every single title that had been asked for, so even though you can get Animal Farm here for about 200 rupees, I ended up buying one for 60 dirhams, which comes to around 1800 rupees.

For women who have trouble getting around and people living in other cities, I couriered the books over. The rest were asked to come and collect. Some readers were so genuinely keen that they showed up right at the airport. I thought that was so great. Others said they didn’t actually want the book, they wanted to meet me. To which I said, “I’ll make sure I never meet you again. This is not on.” Some didn’t show up at all. I still have the books they requested with me.

The next time, I figured the general public was just out to take advantage, so let’s do this with a closed group of readers. Again, huge response. Then one woman said she didn’t want the particular cover I’d brought. She wanted another cover. I thought, ‘you’re a reader; you should be the last person to judge a book by its cover.’ I didn’t send her the book because her statement showed just how serious a reader she was. She still wanted it, but I refused; I’d rather give the book to someone who will cherish it for the story, not the cover.

So I realised this model wasn’t going to work. It was expensive because I was buying books out of my own pocket. It was tiring and people had too many nakhras [attitude]. I spoke to a friend about setting up a library, who put me in touch with someone at Success Factor, which works with students. They had a spare room in their office premises at Defence that could be turned into a reading space and they gave us lots of shelves. This was August 2017. We always intended to take the library further and open it in more locations, so when the Dawood Foundation said they had space at their TDF Ghar at Numaish and asked me to do something about it, I started a second library which was inaugurated in December 2017.

Where did the initial stock come from?

I held a book drive and the response was great; I went with one car to load them and ended up having to call for two more cars. Lots of people also bought brand new books for us. The second time round we bought from someone in Dubai who was leaving and wanted to sell off. They had 5,000 books; we bought 2,000 for a dirham each. TCS partnered with us to move them because we couldn’t afford courier charges for 600 kilograms of books.

How does A Novel Idea work?

We’ve indexed the books — there are both English and Urdu, fiction and non-fiction — and set up a website and an app [at last check on Google Play Store, the app had been downloaded 1000 times]. With the app you don’t have to come and sift through hundreds of titles; you can check if a book you want is available, reserve it for 24 hours, then come and swap for it. There’s no time limit, you don’t have to return it and because of the swapping, the number of titles in each particular genre remains the same, but the content keeps changing.

What are the terms and conditions of exchange?

We require that books be exchanged with titles of a similar genre or quality; you can’t justify The Wolf of Wall Street against a collection of nursery rhymes. One man brought 15 children’s books and took away 15 serious novels — Dan Brown, George R.R. Martin, etc. There’s a pretty big value difference there, and who reads 15 books at the same time? As a reader I understand that you can alternate between a couple of books, but 15? That’s just depriving other people. I called the guy and told him he could take just three. He was apologetic, but it’s so sad that in Pakistan, even a reader is corrupt and trying to scam the system. If I hadn’t been monitoring, within a month the library would have been filled with children’s books and all the novels would be in people’s homes. So we made the three-books-at-one-time rule. Page counts don’t matter; swapping a 300 page book for a 400 pager is fine, but the content and emotional weightage have to be similar.

What are the requirements to donate?

The books should be in reasonably decent condition; we’ve received some that were termite-eaten. Some people also see the libraries as a kind of dumping ground; they’ve done their CSS or CA or A Level exams and want to get rid of their old textbooks. If we started taking academic course books, 800 schoolchildren would show up with their used texts. Better to give them to needy students in their own schools, or to a scrap-paper collector. One person cleaned out his father’s closet and sent us three large boxes of chartered accountancy texts from the 1970s which contain laws that aren’t even practised anymore. We gave them to the chanay wallah. Donating to us makes people feel good, as if they’re doing something commendable, but nobody coming to the library wants these outdated, obsolete books. These donations are just to satisfy egos and so we discourage them.

Along with kudos there have been criticisms of your libraries. Don’t you find that odd?

On the video I posted of the TDF branch’s inauguration, one gentleman commented, “Sham on you.” Not even shame. Sham. I am unable to understand why it’s shameful to open up a library, but I told him we had several good dictionaries at A Novel Idea; he should come have a look. It would improve his spelling. Then, others accused me of setting up ‘dating spots’. With this kind of people, what will become of our nation? Maybe they should read a book. It will help open their minds.

The interviewer is a member of staff

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, March 11th, 2018