Susanne Horman, the Victorian bookshop owner who is calling for more books to be published that feature positive male lead characters that focus on “traditional nuclear white family stories”, with “just white kids on the cover, and no wheelchair, rainbow or indigenous art.” has expanded on her thoughts in an exclusive interview with Sky News.
The bookshop owner who was criticised earlier this week after her social media comments spread online, said the publishing industry needed to focus on filling a ‘gap in the market’ for books that were free from ‘woke ideologies’.
Horman told Andrew Bolt she’d been ordering the books for her Robinsons Bookstore chain for the last 17 years and over than time she’d reviewed close to a million different books.
“We see about 4,500 new books every month, so over the 17 years I’ve actually seen nearly a million books and reviewed them and decided whether or not to put them on the shelf or not.
“I feel like I have a fairly good insight into the market.” Horman said.
“While we do have a lot of diversity themed books, we see 30 to 40 indigenous books coming out every 30 days, and we see about 40 to 50 in the LGBTQ+ space. We see a lot of books for kids that are on diversity and inclusion.” Horman said, but lamented there were no books for men or boys that had “a positive role model, or men portrayed in a positive way”.
“For men who don’t want to read or crime or fantasy, there isn’t a lot to go to.” Horman said, but added that even in these genre’s female character dominate the offering.
“In crime we do have a lot of great male detective books, but female detectives are now starting to become the mainstream. In the traditional fantasy space there’s now a whole new genre of ‘romantasy’ for women, where the woman conquers the world.”
Holman has vowed to stop stocking books which are part of what she’s labeled the “woke agenda”.
“There has been a growing trend of books that are quite aggressive towards white Australians and are trying to promote First Nations issues.” the business owner said.
“I do appreciate that we do have some First Nations people who have experienced quite a lot of trauma, and I do sympathise with that, and I’m sorry that all of that’s happened, but the reality is I don’t want to be caught in the middle of hate-filled books that make people dislike each other, or hate each other.”
Holman said she was concerned that there was a large volume of books about Indigenous issues set to be released in coming months.
“I just don’t see a place for them in my store.”
Horman said that the company had received a barrage of support from customers voicing their support for her views.
Today the bookshop chain posted another response to the furor saying they would still be stocking books that covered themes of diversity and inclusivity, and adding a series of images of staff members picks of great reads.
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