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Don Bosco loved books. He read, wrote, and published profusely. This he did with the sole aim of educating the young under his care and as a means of educating people to the faith.

With a certain amount of insistence, he invited and encouraged young people to read and to come to love books. He perceived in the habit of reading a source of cultural richness which would eventually assist the young to become “honest citizens and good Christians”.

He also believed that reading would help them to become more mature and more responsible. Through his own personal experience as author and reader, Don Bosco envisaged and conceived an educational project aimed solely to protect the young from any outside influence which could have harmed them, especially through writings which were devoid of any morality.

He believed that by offering good readership to the young, he would be helping them to obtain their personal salvation.

Following in the footsteps of Don Bosco, we also launched an ambitious project. We undertook the initiative to collect used and old books. It all started about 20 years ago at S Patrick’s Salesian House, Sliema. This was the first Salesian house opened in Malta, in 1903, and which took the name from its first Irish rector, Fr Patrick O’Grady. Our project has two objectives. Firstly, to collect those books that in all probability would have ended up in the pulping mill. Secondly, the money collected through the sale of the collected books serves to help educate and assist our young people entrusted in our care at our St Patrick’s Home.

During the year, from various houses, we collect books, and sometimes entire private libraries, which would otherwise have been thrown out. By now, many people in Malta know that when they have books of which they would like to dispose, they can call the Salesians of Don Bosco who in turn would gladly pick them up.

Thus, when we collect books from people’s homes, with the help of our volunteers, we go through them one by one. We then divide them according to subject, we check if there is any handwritten dedication, we dust and clean them and in some cases, we rebind them. The collected books then go on sale during our Book Fair which takes place annually before Easter.

Nothing can substitute a good book

Our cultural initiative includes also the selection of rare and valuable books. Their value is based on the year of the publication, their edition and the country in which they were published. These books are sold either at an auction or directly to collectors, both in Malta and abroad.

On many occasions, people were not aware that among the books they were about to throw away, there were actually treasures. We have saved many precious books of value from the pulping mill!

Books which contain a historical Maltese value are bought by the National Library. In some of the books, we come across letters addressed to important personages. These too are sold to interested collectors.

Lately, with great delight, we received a 30-page booklet entitled ‘Don Bosco’. The booklet (right) contained a speech by none other than Fr Carmelo Psaila, Malta’s national poet. The speech was written and delivered by this distinguished Maltese personage at the Church of Our Lady of Pilar in Valletta on May 4, 1903.

The Salesians had not yet arrived on the island and the conference was organised for the Salesian Cooperators by Mgr Luigi Farrugia, diocesan director of the cooperators in Malta.

The Salesian Cooperators were set up and organised before the arrival of the Salesians of Don Bosco in 1903, through the Salesian Bulletin. The speech was written and delivered in Italian. We are planning to publish a facsimile limited edition of the booklet.

The cultural initiative of collecting used books also helps us to establish contact with many people, especially with young university students. Hopefully, through our initiative, we are encouraging them to come to love books and reading so that they may enhance their own studies. Sometimes, in some of the books we receive, we also discover small holy pictures, some of which are very old. We now have a beautiful collection of these images.

Many collectors are interested in such images. Such images are considered as “minor art” and yet they have an antique and fascinating past.

Therefore, in our initiative, nothing is thrown away since we believe that everything is of value, especially when the object is seen from a different perspective.

Our cultural initiative of collecting used books has taught us to appreciate and appraise books as part of humanity’s life and existence. Nothing can substitute a good book.