Journey of shelf discovery
Heavily censored until August, books are now openly sold and enjoyed in Myanmar. Mary O'Shea gets the word on Yangon's streets. Pictures by Cedric Arnold
Amble down any street in downtown Yangon and you will find groups of people clustered around impromptu literature bazaars, with piles of books and worn magazines stacked on tarpaulin mats spread out across pavements.
The Myanmese are passionate readers, and a thriving trade in well-thumbed banned books, exchanged under the table in teashops, has existed for decades. Look at people sitting in teashops, waiting at bus stops, standing in line at ferry terminals - almost invariably they will have their head in a book. What is new, however, are the types of book now publicly on sale in the city.
The nerve centre of the city's intellectual life and home to some of its best bookshops is 37th Street, in downtown Yangon.
The respected Bagan Book House has books by Aung San Suu Kyi on its shelves. U Htay Aung, whose father established the shop in 1977, says he only started to display books by "the Lady" about eight months ago. Bagan is an important repository of rare books on Myanmar, but wander in on almost any day and you will find its owner engaged in animated discussions over games of carrom (a board game in which pieces are sunk in pockets), with some friends munching on noodles and others sipping Mandalay Rum.
A sticker of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy adorns one of the shelves - something that would have been unthinkable a year ago.