The book's many guises

Every year on April 23, the world celebrates books and what they mean to the billions of readers that populate it. In Malta, books also have their significant following, though it is not as voluminous as one would wish, but perhaps it is time to try to understand exactly what we mean by that on the one hand much loved and on the other just as much maligned medium.

For many years before the spread of the technology we know of today, the book was the only means of diffusing wisdom and, for many, it was the only means of entertainment. The only thing that has changed today is that it is now not the only means by which these are conveyed but, doubtlessly, it is still the repository of wisdom and entertainment that it has always been.

For some, the book is a less important object. There is no room for it in their lives because they are distracted by other things or else because, at some point, they lost the love of reading or they never had it. For these, the book does not mean much. It is just a decoration, something with which to fill the sitting room shelves with colours that match those of the curtains. These lose out on a lot. They lose the silent intimacy, getting lost in other worlds or thoughts that fly high and fill their lives with marvels they cannot even dream of.

For those who produce it, the book can also be many things. For whoever writes it, it is a showcase for creativity - a source of restfulness and a work of art. For whoever produces it, it is craft, professional and finished. For whoever publishes it, it is a renewal of culture. But it is also a risky act and a courageous one.

And here perhaps one should draw the Maltese people's attention to the few publishers we have, who are very courageous and who risk quite a bit, too, because the market for Maltese books is a small one that does not encourage entrepreneurship.

The Maltese have been deemed by a number of research studies as a race that does not read and there are only a few who drink from the stream that is provided for by those who put forward their money so we can have all types of books and not just those that sell. We must not forget that these publishers are putting into the market the majority of the 400 or so books that are published each year in our country. And only some of the published books can be considered as primarily commercial. The others stoke culture.

Perhaps the time has also come for the country to find some way of helping these brave few, as it helps other industries, because it considers them vital to the development of society. It is true that, first and foremost, the book is a source of culture but book publishing is an industry like all other industries. It employs people and provides a product that nourishes important aspects of people's lives.

The National Book Council would like to see the publishing industry in Malta move forward and I am certain that it will find the help of the country's Administration for this to happen.

So the book is many things to many people. But it remains, throughout its definitions, a very important fulcrum on which turns that part of our lives that looks for a source of wisdom, of fun, of dreams and of escape from the everyday drudgery.

For book lovers in Malta (and even for those who just enjoy a good thing), the National Book Council is celebrating World Book Day with a number of activities in collaboration with St James Cavalier. There are readings, encounters with writers and illustrators, dramatisations with the help of the Drama School, and everything that a book can be outside its own covers.

The day that celebrates books should help us remember just how many things a book can be. It should help us understand what is entailed in the process of the production of books and what wonderful joy the end product of that process can be. If we decide we want it to be so.

Dr Mallia is the chairman of the National Book Council.