Let’s include books in our shopping list. On Valentine’s Day, let’s offer books to our loved ones
If you have to buy gifts for your friends and relatives for different occasions, what comes to your shopping list? Clothes, house wares, cosmetics, photo frames, watches, electronic gadgets? Sometimes you may not be able to decide what to pick. What if there is something, which would be quicker to choose, easier to grab, better to look at and memorable and affordable? Here’s an excellent alternative. Book. Book can be a dignified alternative to our hard-to-choose and expensive ritual of gift giving, while also contributing to reading habits.
While we’re yet to internalize the value of gifting books, the world is already in this campaign by marking International Book Giving Day, which is marked on February 14—which also happens to be the Valentine’s Day. Since 2012, International Book Giving Day has been celebrated in around 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and America, aiming to exchange books and support the needy children with books. Inspired by this noble cause, the day is also being marked in Nepal since 2015 in the initiation of a youth-led organization, Pariwartanka Lagi Pahal Nepal, aiming to promote gifting books and reading habits.
The culture of giving gifts is increasing in Nepali society at present because people tend to have more celebrations in their life than before. Besides, the ritual celebrations like naming, bratabandha, marriage and other cultural obligations, people also celebrate birthday, marriage anniversary, promotion etc. With the advent of the new forms of celebrations, there should be novelty in our gift-giving-culture too. Giving books can be one way of doing that.
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If rightly selected, we can gift books to children, housewives, grandparents, or even to a bedridden person. As SR Ranganathan has rightly said, “Every reader has his or her own book and every book has its own reader.” So, readers have their own choice like consumers have the choice of other gifts, such as food, clothes, gadgets etc.
Choosing items like clothes can be complicated for both gift givers and receivers. In comparison, books can be easier to select. For instance, if we are buying books for children, we can go for pictorial books with interesting and level appropriate plot. Likewise, we can give parenting book or recipe book/s when giving gifts to housewives. Similarly, for grandparents, we can look for religious books and for a bedridden person self-help (motivational and inspiring) books can be the right gifts. If we are not sure about what kind of books the person in question likes, we can ask him/her.
Today’s parents worry a lot about their children’s declining reading habits and expect them to read most of the times but paradoxically they themselves do not support this noble cause. For instance, we have a culture of buying something for our children or junior while returning home from market. What do we generally buy? Something nice to eat, play, wear or enjoy. Instead of spending money on these items, have we ever thought of including a reading material? We don’t have to buy the expensive books. Even simple children’s magazines will do.
Schools have been practicing the culture of giving books and reading materials as prizes to the children. However, they need to step up to cater the reading habits of their own teachers. When we, as parents and teachers, expect our children to develop reading habit, what about our own reading habit? Before asking children to read, how often do we (parents and teachers) read? Do we realize that additional reading materials besides school textbooks are important? We need to review and reflect our home and school cultures. Then only we can expect our children to develop reading habits.
Gifting books has several good things about it. Books remain long with receivers as they aren’t used every day like other useable items. And the givers are likely to be remembered for long by the receivers. Likewise, our gift is more respected and kept in a safer place—at the shelf, nearby bed are below the pillow. Similarly, books are such a gift, which can be used again and again.
Garrison Keillor writes, “A book is a gift you can open again and again.” Moreover, upon reading, our gifts can generate multiple ideas in the readers.
So let’s include books in our shopping list for gifts and also promote reading habits. On this Valentine’s Day, let’s choose books as gifts to be offered to your loved ones.
The author is a reading skills expert in a Kathmandu-based organization. Views are personal
Twitter: @G1Karki
