Celebrating books!
World Book Day aims to promote reading and celebrate literature. It was first observed by UNESCO on?23 April 1995.
For someone who grew up with books it is indeed a day of celebration. Books are like friends, they guide us, help us to make sense of ourselves and the world that we inhabit. In the Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being, books are identified as symbolising 'a secret brotherhood' of knowledge and the aspiration for 'something higher'.
In Tereza’s eyes, books were the emblems of a secret brotherhood. For she had but a single weapon against the world of crudity surrounding her: the books she took out of the municipal library, and above all, the novels. She had read any number of them, from Fielding to Thomas Mann. They not only offered the possibility of an imaginary escape from a life she found unsatisfying; they also had a meaning for her as physical objects: she loved to walk down the street with a book under her arm.
Your favourite book?
Very difficult to pick one. I have many but there are some that I frequently reread. These include the following:
There are many more that have engaged me but these appear at the top of the list. I will be always pleased to discuss them over a nice meal. That is an open invitation!
Why is WBD important?
Children who enjoy reading are three times more likely to have good mental wellbeing than children who don’t enjoy it. Children born into communities with the most serious literacy challenges have some of the lowest life expectancies in England.
Lack of vital literacy skills holds back a person at every stage of their life. As a child they will not succeed at school, as a young adult they are locked out of the job market, and as a parent they are unable to support their own child's learning. This intergenerational cycle makes social mobility and a fairer society a near impossibility.
Low levels of literacy undermine the UK’s economic competitiveness, costing the taxpayer ￡2.5 billion every year (KPMG, 2009 ). A third of businesses are not satisfied with young people’s literacy skills when they enter the workforce and a similar number have organised remedial training for young recruits to improve their basic skills, including literacy and communication.
How will you celebrate WBD?
I am sharing this article, including some of my favourite books. I am also planning to watch the latest production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which, I am informed, is the nation's favourite book.
What about you? Please share some of your favourite books in the comments below.
#favouritebooks #worldbookday #wbd2022 #books #literacy #literature
Independent Consultant
2 年I could pile in with some of my favourite reads but I have just enjoyed seeing the number of people who have responded to Ali kazimi and celebrate the sharing of human insight and knowledge.
Authority on lived experiences and unmet needs among seldom-heard groups in the UK. Helping leaders identify and prioritise opportunities to reduce inequalities and deliver positive social impacts. MRS Main Board member.
2 年Oohh.. I love to be asked about books. Where to start? Somewhere in my top 100, the following: 1. Memoirs of Hadrian (Yourcenar) - a tour de force in empathy, history and writing. 2. The Age of Innocence (Wharton) - a complex, beautifully-observed book by a woman whose attention to interior design was only matched by her courage in working with refugees! 3. The Mismeasure of Man (Gould) - a book on intelligence testing, by one of the greatest scientists and popularisers of science whose daughter had learning difficulties. This prompted a journey to find out what we know about intelligence and how we (mis) measure it. Fascinating. 4. Essai sur l'Histoire Humaine de la Nature (Moscovici) - an essay on how nature and society are not two separate entities, but how nature is itself a social constructs. Became foundational for my PhD. 5. Anna Karenina: so many breathtaking moments where, in a single line, Tolstoi manages to convey what the protagonist is doing, thinking, feeling, all at the same time, without ever feeling didactic - and then managing to do that for 132 people over 700 pages, across contexts, with evolving feelings and actions, without ever feeling less than 100% convincing!! I am in awe...
Deputy Head of Compliance/ MLRO
2 年Thanks for aharing Ali ! It is an amazing article I like to share my favourate book “ Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Album , it is about an old wise man who was about to die, meeting a young man every Tuesday and gave some advices and lessons learned in his life. The old man “Morrie” was the college prof of the young man “Mitch” where they reunited after 20 years and only a month before the old petient man passed away. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live!
Adjunct Lecturer, Philosophy, Philosophy of Art
2 年Here are my favorite books: Gulistān by the Persian poet Sa'di The dialogues of Plato especially Apology, Hippias Major, and Symposium. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky