Thinking of libraries and queues at wine stores - EDITORIAL

People are eagerly awaiting the day the country would be opened up for travelling sans restrictions. In this restricted environment we saw wine stores being opened up for business. A recent facebook post asked the question ‘what could a country hope to achieve when it keeps wine stores opened and its libraries closed’?
The myriad of issues faced by health authorities and law enforcement officers in making people follow Covid related health guidelines is probably due to the lack of education. There are scores of people who missed out on formal education, but caught up on what was lost by reading extensively. 

Sri Lanka does have a reading community, but that’s quite small. We saw this very clearly when noticing that a good number of visitors at the ‘Colombo International Book Fair’ were there to eat noodles, meet friends and take selfies using smartphones. Buying books- for people in this category- never topped the list of priorities. 
September is known as the month for literary activities. But whether the much looked forward to book fair would take place this year is very much uncertain given the lockdowns and the pandemic. The worst hit by the uncertainty that prevails are authors who intend launching the books they’ve penned after years of hard work, research and extensive writing. There is an e-book concept, but it doesn’t offer the glamour prestige that a writer receives when he/she gets to physically launch the book and speak to 
potential readers. 

But before we could think of celebrating the books we finished writing we need to make our contributions to promoting the libraries and the reading habit. We’ve come across stories of how individuals collect books and set up libraries for the public; asking for nothing in return. Sometimes authors have to give away expensive books to promote the reading habit within the community. Such stories are even heard in the world of photography; giving away photographs free promotes the idea of valuing them in a society that knows nothing about this subject. 
Sri Lanka once had a vibrant library and reading culture, but that was threatened by most books being made available on the internet. Sometimes just by reading a review of a book by a so called social media expert gives an unsuspecting student or writer bits and pieces of a novel for a newspaper article or a speech. Reading the entire book is unthinkable for some people who are looking for shortcuts in life. 

"Sri Lanka once had a vibrant library and reading culture, but that was threatened by most books being made available on the internet. Sometimes just by reading a review of a book by a so called social media expert gives an unsuspecting student or writer bits and pieces of a novel for a newspaper article or a speech."

It’s in this context that this writer recalls an important fact from a youtube clip which features Sinhala language guru Upul Shantha Sannasagala. This former tuition master once had to speak at a book launch and for that purpose was preparing the day before and burning midnight oil and reading the book from beginning to end. After one reading, and according to Sannasgala himself, he had failed to grasp the message the book he was reading was giving. After several reattempts and a few calls to close friends he had succeeded; all efforts ensuring him a good night’s sleep before the challenging assignment the next day.
This is what Sri Lanka must aim at; to produce well researched and well-written books, but most importantly send a strong message across.

This country needs educated people with a taste for books, arts and literature. For that we need libraries-in all cities-and keep them open even if the regime doesn’t open places that sell people’s most prefered fermented beverage.