“I better fulfill my basic needs than buy books”. These were the words of a passenger when asked to buy a book by a street book vendor (taken from Ethiopian Press) It’s inevitable to see today that price and demand are two unmatched things in Ethiopia. And this did not exclude books. Ethiopians are deemed to be non-readers according to many researchers and journalists. And it seems to be the case. And yes, cultural erosion did most of the work, but cost of living also played an important role in this situation. But we should also consider the number of pirated books installed on youngsters’ devices. Due to a little survey we’ve conducted more recently, we found that more than 50% of young people used pirated books (pdfs) as a primary means of getting reading materials. And this is because of either the price tags on the books or unavailability. Price takes a bigger percentage for the reason behind this act.

We, at Scroll Books, work hard to make books affordable and easy to get for Ethiopians. We are trying to take care of those people who want to read books, but wouldn’t bother because of the hassle that exists to buy books, whether it’s unaffordable or unavailable, thus time consuming, in the least of cases. We take that burden off of the reader and provide an easy to use book ordering platform with delivery included. Aside from this service, as we are keen just to make books available and affordable, we have services like Swapping and Leasing/ Borrowing, where a reader may get a book almost for free. So our hassle-free service aims to reach readers and non-readers alike to promote reading and don’t just stop there, provide books with ease, so the mind can be rich, and with a freedom to think, a more free life is indulged in.