Meet Malaysian national advocating for a world wide reading culture – Business Daily
Big Bad Wolf founder Andrew Yap during the launch of BBW book sale at Sarit Centre. PHOTO | POOL
Andrew Yap, the founder of Big Bad Wolf (BBW), believes that cultivating a book-reading culture is the only way children will be able to combat the challenges in the world.
Mr Yap who is on a mission to go around the world and offer affordable books is now in Kenya.
The 45-year-old Malaysian says that growing up in Kuala Lumpur, he never grew up with books. When he started school, he felt that his classmates who grew up with books, read and wrote better.
“This made me feel very bad and I rebelled more and hence did not pass my school,” he says.
Starting in Malaysia, Mr Yap has held sales in 15 countries and 36 cities.
Using the name, Big Bad Wolf as his signature, he says is a catchy name fit for children as they are their primary goal – target market. The name is derived from a famous character in the Little Red Riding Hood tale.
“Children relate to a character. The Big Bad Wolf is a character from the old classic. Everybody remembers the bad character and we want them to know that they should not judge a book by its cover.”
He says his target is different from that of bookstores, which attempt to attract readers.
“We aspire to attract non-readers. Readers will naturally gravitate toward books. The challenge is how to pique curiosity among the less literate,” he says.
However, in the era of digitisation, Mr Yap discourages parents from introducing e-books to their children when they have not been integrated entirely into reading.
“The child knows that the digital device has games, internet so they would want to read the book fast then go and play hence not get the morals of the story. Also, one can touch and smell a book in ways he cannot a modern device,” he says.
A lover of cars, Mr Yap says that if he would not in the book industry, he would probably be working in the car industry or even participating in races.
“When I was young, I wanted to be a race car driver.”
With a set-out goal of changing the world through books, Mr Yap says he has not thought of his retirement work or industry he can venture into at the moment.
“I will keep on moving until all children have books in their hands,” he opines.
Though his heart is with the children, he says that even adults with a ‘busy’ schedule should always create time to read books by prioritising them to social media.
Dedicate one hour a day to reading, he says.
The sale slated for 13 days started on October 14 at Sarit Centre in Nairobi. It will see 500,000 books in 15,000 titles exhibited.
