Dear Reader,

The extraordinary petition sent to the government by South African writers last week appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

Its central plea, “a simple addition to the Level 4 regulations, that all books be available for purchase online or over the phone and for delivery, and that all booksellers, big and small, be allowed to trade”, was not addressed during Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosasana Dlamini-Zuma’s remarks on Wednesday 29 May.

Booksellers have thus taken matters courageously into their own hands. The previous, rather nebulous, stipulation that “educational books” may be sold still stands, and if a protein bar can count as food (essential item!), or a luxury soap as a toiletry (another essential item!), then who’s to say that the romance novel you’ve been jonesing for isn’t educational?

Accordingly, most booksellers are open for business once again. Please support them: directly below, find ways to further your education by sending cash to South African indie bookshops. Let’s all take responsibility for supporting our book culture during this time.

(At the same time, we also have a brilliant column, below, on why reading is hard right now. Doesn’t mean you can’t hoard books for when it gets easier!)

As ever, enjoy this edition of Burn After Reading. Meet you in the blank white spaces at the edges of print, and stay safe.

Ben

PS – This newsletter is co-produced with The Reading List – why not click over for a look?

Daily Maverick Best Sellers on hold

Bookstores have been CLOSED for weeks, online bookselling has been SHUT DOWN, there ARE no bestsellers to report for May 2020. The nation’s supply of Mark Manson has been CUT OFF!

Instead of the Top Ten, we present ways you can help South Africa’s beloved indie bookstores keep their doors open. Bookshops are church: please do what you can to help them get through this. If you're not ready to visit a bookshop in person yet, here's how to contribute remotely. Go on, tithe, tithe!

Kalk Bay Books, 124 Main Road, Kalk Bay, Cape Town. Make a donation: write to kalkbaybooks@gmail.com and ask for banking details. Alternatively, buy a gift voucher via the same address.

Love Books, Bamboo Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg. Visit SnapItForward to buy a voucher; redeem it using SnapScan when the shop re-opens. Alternatively, make a donation or buy a voucher via email: orders@lovebooks.co.za.

The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town. Make a donation or buy a voucher using PayFast or SnapScan. If you prefer to pay via EFT, email booklounge@gmail.com.

Bridge Books, 90 Commissioner Street & 24 Albrecht Street, Johannesburg. Buy gift cards for books or experiences; get 50% off their famous “underground booksellers” walking tour; or 50% off their online isiZulu classes; support The Johannesburg Literary District's street cleaners; donate from the USA.

Book Circle Capital, 27 Boxes, Melville, Johannesburg. Buy a voucher; alternatively, DM them on Twitter, or write to bookcirclecapital@gmail.com.

Ike's Books and Collectibles, 48a Florida Road, 1st Floor, Durban. Write to ikesbooks@iafrica.com for information on how you can help.

Clarke’s Bookshop, 199 Long Street, Cape Town. Buy a voucher, which can be redeemed at any time once the lockdown has been lifted.
 

The Grapevine, All-Pandemic Edition

Books that have South Africans talking during the time of COVID-19.

Lockdown: The Corona Chronicles and Lockdown Extended. Written by 17 authors in seven days, Lockdown was SA's first coronavirus-themed book, capturing the intense mood of these unprecedented times. Publisher Melinda Ferguson immediately published the sequel, Lockdown Extended, featuring 30 of SA’s most celebrated writers. On the brink of catastrophe, lost in a viral fog – what better time for a bunch of isolated writers to try and make sense of it all?

Virus-Proof Your Small Business: 50 Ways to Survive the Covid-19 Crisis by Douglas Kruger. Business coach Douglas Kruger shares ideas he has aggregated from experts around the world. The book has been snapped up for a worldwide release and lays out 50 practical ways your business can survive – and possibly even thrive – during this time.

The Rules of Contagion by Adam Kucharski. A deadly virus explodes into the population. A political movement gathers pace and then quickly vanishes. An idea takes off like wildfire. Our lives are shaped by outbreaks that appear, spread and fade away with bewildering speed. To understand them, we need to learn the hidden laws that govern them. Dig into this book to find out – read the exclusive excerpt here.

The Upside of Down: How Chaos and Uncertainty Breed Opportunity in South Africa by Bruce Whitfield. When Whitfield came up with the title for his long-awaited first book, he couldn’t have imagined the extent of the chaos that would erupt just after its publication. Still, the ideas and advice in the book are perhaps more relevant now than ever before. “Problem-solvers thrive in chaotic and uncertain times because they act to change their future,” says the author.

Plague, Pox and Pandemics: A Jacana Pocket History of Epidemics in South Africa by Howard Phillips. Phillips provides a look into the history of epidemics in South Africa, probing lethal episodes which significantly shaped this society over three centuries. Focusing on devastating diseases such as smallpox, bubonic plague, Spanish influenza, polio and HIV/Aids, the book probes their origin, their catastrophic course and their consequences in both the short and long term. To those who read it, South African history will not look the same again.

Coronavirus: A Book for Children by Elizabeth Jenner, Kate Wilson and Nia Roberts, and illustrated by The Gruffalo’s Axel Scheffler. Written for primary school kids and free for anyone to read on screen or to print out: click here to download it for free. The book answers key questions in simple language appropriate for five- to nine-year-olds: What is the coronavirus? What happens if you catch it? What can I do to help? What’s going to happen next? Ook beskikbaar in Afrikaans: Koronavirus: ’n Boek vir kinders vertaal deur Jaco Jacobs. Kry jou gratis e-boek hier. 

On Not Reading During a Global Crisis

Maverick Insider Jennifer Cohen writes from the Karoo with an insight into why it’s so hard to read right now.

A confession: I have not managed to read much during lockdown.

At first, I thought I would settle into the new normal and then retrieve some aspects of my old normal, which involved at least a book or two a week. In the middle of March I’d reserved my copy of Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror & the Light and devoured the first couple hundred pages, but I’ve since found it impossible to read. I try, dutifully, every couple of days. But I’ve given up. It doesn’t help that there are references to the plague in it, not to mention that Mantel’s Machiavellian politicians are too close to those we live with. It is not exactly escapist literature.

I did manage to listen to an audio book when I was watering my garden and sewing masks for our nearby village, which was a balm of sorts. 

But listing on my fingers worry, anxiety, low-level panic, fear for others’ health, for the economy, for small businesses and the near instantaneous destruction of what so many have built, I’ve come to see that my left brain is permanently engaged and overriding my right brain.

Then someone sent around an article she’d read in Vogue which explained that actually the front of my brain was responsible for my reading drought. Our focus on the “source of the threat” inhibits our ability to concentrate and “makes it difficult to lose [ourselves] in another world”.

This, of course, led me to read a lot about our brain (somehow I had an appetite for this) and I discovered that it takes one part of the brain to concentrate and another to become distracted – the prefrontal and parietal cortexes, respectively. The latter is on overdrive in my head. We are also now in a permanent state of “fight or flight”, which produces stress hormones, which cause us to open the fridge door too often. Our hypothalamus sends out that signal and, because there is no relief from the threat, we never activate the “digest and rest” response.

Which means we can’t read our books.

If, like me, you’re desperate for your brain to allow you back into a book’s other world, but in the meantime will settle for any text-based diversion, here’s that Vogue article, which includes tips on how to regain the reading habit you’ve lost to the virus. Perhaps one will work for you – or perhaps we should all get back to sewing masks.
 

Recipe: Sticky Chicken with a side of Peri-peri Chicken Livers – and as few dirty dishes as possible

Getting sick of your own standard fare? Missing the taste of a certain takeaway? Try these spicy, lip-smacking, one-dish, chicken recipes from Chantal Lascaris’s new cookbook, All Sorts of One-Dish Wonders, for dinner this week.

Click here for both recipes.

In 2019, New York and New Jersey experienced the biggest outbreak of measles in decades. Around 8 times more contagious than COVID-19, some communities reported a measles vaccination rate of just 60%.

When quality journalism is put behind a paywall, misinformation thrives and we all suffer. Now more than ever, we need fact-based, professional journalism to be accessible by all. Becoming a member helps our cause to be a public service. If you would like to support our efforts, you can sign up here.

Further Reading

OPINIONISTA: Pandemic literature

Did the 1918 Spanish flu leave a literary legacy in South Africa? I struck out in search of one, hoping to find a passage to inspire our 21st century march through the pandemic. Click here to read my column.

MAVERICK LIFE EXCERPT: The Rules of Contagion by Adam Kucharski

Kucharski’s book charts how outbreaks – of disease, of misinformation, of violence, and more – happen, and how they’re brought under control. Click here to read our exclusive excerpt. 

Opinionista Book Excerpt: Two Minutes to Midnight by Oscar van Heerden

The Daily Maverick columnist presents an insider’s view of the political machinations of the African National Congress in his new book, which asks the question: Will Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC survive? Read the excerpt here.

THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT: The latest on literary awards from around the world

South African author and pan-Africanist Zukiswa Wanner is the first African woman to receive the Goethe Medal. She received it last week, alongside British writer Ian McEwan and Bolivian artist Elvira Espejo Ayca. Congratulations, Zuki!

South African poet Mangaliso Buzani was awarded the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry for his collection a naked bone. A major achievement – congratulations to him!

Shortlists and longlists aplenty have been announced, including the Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist, which features Bernardine Evaristo; the longlist for the Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans; and the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlists.

Catch up on these and other literary awards here.

Footnotes

At The Reading List, we’re trainspotters for book links, and we’ve collected a host of them in our monthly “Footnotes” post. 

Click here to read it at your leisure.