Books, and Nothing More

What began as a way to remember the great authors turned into a mission.

Illiteracy persists, despite the Internet making information accessible. Education is a pipe dream to many, so there's still much to be done. In 1995, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided to celebrate World Book Day on the 23rd of April. It's a special day in literature, as Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare passed away on that date.

Miguel Cervantes is one of the towering figures in Spanish literature, his "Don Quixote" not only a classic, but also the book would become the foundation of modern fiction. The titular character is a dreamer, the kind of individual readers often encounters in books. Does this mean that the world, as we know, will fall into despair if there are no dreamers? That's what Cervantes's book seems to convey. On the other hand, Shakespeare can be considered as the greatest writer in the English language. His plays have been analyzed countless times, even adapted. The words he used may no longer be fashionable, but his message was universal, even timeless. His works, along with Cervantes's, broke barriers, prompting some to believe that a book can be an instrument of change. This is what UNESCO believes in.

Though World Book Day promotes reading, publishing, and copyright, the first is the highest priority. The 21st century may offer lots of promises to the next generation, but the problems are no different from the previous centuries. Poverty in developing countries results to ignorance, and for the young ones, this can be appalling if not addressed right away. It doesn't mean that those who have access to books and the Internet are off the hook. Not everyone may read a Thomas Hardy book, only a few can appreciate High fantasy. Even so, a book must be something to enjoy, no different from any hobby.

Perhaps some quotes from some authors can change a skeptic mind:

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."

- Maya Angelou

"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."

- Ray Bradbury

"The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of the past centuries."

- Descartes

"There is creative reading as well as creative writing."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing."

- Benjamin Franklin

"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark."

- Victor Hugo

"A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it."

- Samuel Johnson

"To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life."

- W. Somerset Maugham

"A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting."

- Henry David Thoreau

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read."

- Mark Twain