A day for books

Today is the International Day of the Book and every year on this day we celebrate that much-maligned implement of learning, love and enjoyment deemed dead by so many technological soothsayers.

That the book is very much alive might have a lot to do with sentimentality and very little to do with society as it now stands and Maltese society in particular - in which short travelling distances, climate and general lifestyle are not amenable to reading. Unlike, for example, places in which there is a comparable market for books, like Iceland, where reading is rampant and print runs sold out in days. It is little wonder, therefore, that, in a recent Eurostat study, the Maltese came last among all Europeans in book reading.

This is certainly not because we do not have enough books to read. The Maltese are bilingual and there are probably more books in English than in any other language in the world.

And we also have a flourishing book industry in Malta and the variety of books of the highest possible quality being produced would surprise most. In fact, there are many who have no idea what books are being produced in Malta, which is why the National Book Council is launching its Books-in-Print online search facility, to be found on www.ktieb.org.mt. All books available on the island can now be searched for by author, title, genre, target age, publisher, etc.

So, maybe, it is time to celebrate the book, after all, though there is only one way in which it can be celebrated.

The book needs to be read. Yes, it is true that it can be cherished as well and appreciated in the beauty of the way it looks and feels, and one can get lost in the pictures, if there are any, crafted skilfully by the illustrator. But more than anything else, the book needs to be read.

May I suggest you get lost in a book today? Dive into the imagined universe that the writer has fashioned, stimulating your fantasy, relaxing you and making you forget the reality of your life, giving you keys to doors to the worlds behind, which can only be built with fantasy. Everything exists in books. Even what does not exist, but is only imagined, because the book is the repository of all wisdom, of all idiocy, every imagining and theory.

Perhaps the Maltese, like so many others worldwide, prefer television, or the fascinating universe of the internet. And children probably prefer electronic games that also make them enter an alternative reality crafted by someone else.

But one need not exclude the other. What we get from books is different from what we get from the other media that dominate today's society. The mental and emotional tools we use to read are those that stimulate fantasy and creativity in the individual.

They are the reading capability in itself and the use of language in particular ways that help improve the skills in using it. You can touch the book. Smell it. Carry it easily. Find it quickly in moments when you have nothing much to do.

I would really like to suggest that on this International Day of the Book, each and every one of us should make a resolution to start carrying a book around with us. No matter where we go. Doing whatever we are doing. And that, every chance we get, we open it and read a bit of it. I have no doubt that, with time, the appetite for books will increase, like the craving for a good meal that does not just feed the stomach but the mind, and emotions, and all the life of the reader.

Dr Mallia is the chairman of the National Book Council.

info@gorgmallia.com