Dear Editor,
I was enjoying my read of Sunday Stabroek weekly columnist Ian McDonald. Before I left Guyana to work like a captive in the over-rated US labour force, Ian’s Sunday column was a fixture on my Sunday reading agenda.
These days with my consciousness more aligned to business and politics, particularly the excesses of the PPP, I just glazed over Ian’s headline on Sunday, May 27, 2012 The caption of the article was not a big enticer for me ‘Earl Rogervald the holy and other delights’; however, being a fan of Dr McDonald I put aside my doubt and was treated to a really wonderful article on the magic of reading.
A quote from the article which I found insightful and true is, “A child who loves reading is going to learn faster and better than his or her peers who do not and is going to retain and organize and express what is learnt much more usefully.”
I dare say books both in electronic and print form meet the view expressed by Ian, and altogether I found the article a very rewarding and enjoyable read. Admittedly feeling the pages of the book in your grasp does add a possessiveness and commitment to the reading experience.
I recall during the height of my sports career in Guyana I was a big fan of the Romantic poets such as Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and Lord Byron. The rendering of the following verse from Bryon I have always found enchanting and everlastingly beautiful:
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy days denies
I encourage my fellow Guyanese of all ages to read and enjoy the benefits of reading; as Ian puts it, “The imagination fills with a whole series of lives and ideas, old delights, new departures, fresh challenges and eternal truths.”
One eternal truth that comes to mind is line from one of Keats’s Odes: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”
Reading is a thing of beauty.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Hinds
