There is a feast ongoing, at which we are gorging ourselves. Yes, we are greedy about this particular spread and not ashamed to say so. But, not to worry, there is be a wide variety and enough for everyone — and everyone’s invited.
The feast is going to last for three months and from previous experience, could be extended. Now, for those still puzzled and salivating to know what we are talking about, it is a literary feast.
Yes! The Georgetown Reading and Research Centre’s (GRRC) has once again launched a book special, this time called ‘The Book Feast of 2008’, a half-priced sale on all books offered by the centre. The promotion was launched earlier this month. We support this initiative fully given the dismal statistics on literacy, an example being the army recruits’ miserable performance at their level-six entrance examination, which was recently thrust into the public’s consciousness.
Now we are sure that a culture of reading would have definitely improved the recruits’ performance but sadly, on the whole, reading has fallen by the wayside in this society. Youths and school-aged children are hardly reading anymore and while television is the medium most often blamed for this decline, there comes a time when parents and elders have to take stock and make reading fun for the children again. Too often, children only read what is required for school, and this mindset should be changed because reading is fun.
But how do they go about this given the high prices of books? The library is one answer; the other is the GRRC. We have visited the centre and we are impressed by the large numbers of books on a wide variety of topics. Books on everything from fairy tales to computers and novels to textbooks, and things in-between can be found here. Books can be obtained at a low price and when you buy a certain amount, you can get some free! What’s a better deal than that? According to director of the centre, Rupert Hopkinson, “reading forms the foundation for school-based learning and those who read will be better able to contribute to the growth of the nation.” We agree with this statement.
Children should be encouraged to read, but too often one finds them plunked down in front of the television. While this does have its uses, nothing can substitute for the plain pleasure of reading a good book and in doing so learning new things, improving your vocabulary and being better prepared for the future. Books can open a whole new world to someone who’s discovering the world for the first time. You can go to China or to the sun, fly with a dragon or swim with a dolphin, mine gold and diamonds, surf the waves, visit with kings, even be a king, learn about John F. Kennedy or Marilyn Monroe, all this and more can be done with books. And all the while, you learn. There’s a verse that begins: “Oh for a book/and a cosy nook…” We can identify with this. We can say that some of our best friends have been books and they’re still around. To use a current expression they’re “friends with benefits”.
(thescene@stabroeknews.com)
