Every month, I interview an author I admire on his literary firsts–except this month, I’m interviewing a book subscription box creator.
There’s something strangely enticing about book subscription boxes. Sure, you can buy the books on your own, but you won’t get all the pleasures of having someone buy them for you — the expected yet unexpected package in the mailbox, the joy of unboxing a prettily-wrapped gift, the discovery of books you didn’t pick out for yourself.
With Boxwalla Book Box, you get all that plus the chance to expand your literary horizons by discovering writers from around the globe. Each book box comes with two international reads that’ll put you in touch with cultures foreign to you and human emotions that feel intimately familiar.
I got a chance to interview, Lavanya Krishnan, cofounder of Boxwalla, who revealed her tips for successfully recommending books and her perspective on many Americans’ insular reading choices.
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Siel: What inspired you to start a subscription book box?
Lavanya: As immigrants ourselves, we were surprised to discover that the readers, of a nation of immigrants, do not engage with literature from the rest of the world.
In the U.S, unlike in other parts of the world, readers are obsessed with their own literature. This is possibly a good thing, but only to an extent. The lack of curiosity, about literature from outside of the U.S., is actually quite disturbing. Most people in the U.S. do not read writers from outside the U.S., and they do not read translated literature. And this is reflected in the fact that only 0.7% of all the books published in the U.S. comprises translated fiction and poetry.
The Boxwalla Book Box is our attempt to change that, since there are amazing books being written all over the world, that American readers are largely unaware of, or even resistant to. And so we decided to scour the literary landscape, so to speak, to bring the best books from all over the world, to whoever wanted to read them.
One of the things we have observed, is how the insular reading choices of even the more erudite American reader, is actually symptomatic of events that manifest itself outside the literary landscape.
Let me illustrate this point. When Trump emerged as the President, he was portrayed as being representative of a particularly conservative segment of American society, something that most erudite American readers believe they have nothing in common with. But as it happens, the process of democracy always throws up a leader who accurately represents a very unique characteristic of that society. A characteristic that represents the entire society, even if the society fails to recognize it as such at the time. In this case, Trump represents the self obsession, the indifference and the disinterestedness in deeply engaging with the rest of the world, that is a very peculiar characteristic of the American society, regardless of people’s political affiliations. And this indifference is reflected, among other things, in the reading choices of even the more well-read American readers.
So, if you step back and think about it, the serious American literary reader actually has quite a bit in common with President Donald Trump. We would rather not have that be the case. Hence our valiant attempts. 🙂
How do you go about selecting the books for your box? What comes first — the theme or the books? Is there a specific process you go through for each box?
The books definitely come first. We have a list of books that we’ve read and that we think deserve to be read. The theme is based on which books we decide to pair together, The pairings depend on which books might work well when read in a sequence (both within a box and across boxes), or might complement each other in some way (without being tediously similar).
I’m curious what your own reading habits are like. Does your reading list resemble the selections you make for Boxwalla — or does it range more widely?
Initially, when we started the Boxwalla Book Box, we focused on living writers, so the list was a subset of what we read. But recently, we’ve switched to showcasing both dead and living writers, so as to be able to showcase both forgotten greats as well as contemporary greats who aren’t as well known as they deserve to be. So now it is a closer reflection of what we read.
Of course, there are several well known writers, whom we love as well, who may not feature in our box, but only because our subscribers have probably already read them (Flaubert, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Faulkner, Pamuk, George Eliot come to mind). But our selections for Boxwalla do reflect our tastes, as well as our personal attempts at reading outside our comfort zone (but still within the realm of great literature).
Any tips or best practices for how best to convince friends and strangers to read a book you’ve read and loved?
Ah – that’s the tricky thing to achieve – to convince someone to read a book you’ve loved.
We have found that people are very particular whom they will take reading advice from. Everybody has limited time to read, so for somebody to read something you recommend, requires a certain leap of faith, or a recognition of kinship in terms of reading tastes. So something like, ‘oh, I see you loved Book A. I loved it too. If you loved Book A, I think you will love Book B’, could work.
It becomes easier once somebody takes that leap of faith and likes something you’ve recommended. Then they are more likely to be convinced to read that second book you recommend…. 🙂
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Enter to win a Boxwalla Book Box by signing up for my newsletter. Already joined up? Then you’re already entered. Good luck!
Earlier:
* Boxwalla: A Book box for world literature lovers
* The TNB Book Club: Get literary gems delivered to your door for under $10
* The Book Drop: Handpicked reads delivered from an indie bookstore
