In honour of the Year of Reading and in praise of books
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Adviser of Estonian literature, National Library of Estonia
The Year of Reading is a suitable time to speak about books, companions for us all, in most different ways.
It is a moment to point to them as real friends who can direct your personal, cultural and social development. Books can be introduced in a sophisticated, even strict manner but a playful way is also possible. I have chosen the latter way. Thus, I admire and introduce books as persons with whom I communicate and who in their turn care for me and respond to my reader’s questions with their content. Famous writers (e.g. Kafka) have written about the wonderful power of influence of books, poems have been composed about them but, then, books have had to survive wars, destruction and fear of fire. Books have always been and will remain documents of the epoch which tell about their time and the people with whom they have lived and fought side by side. They have lost and won. The appearance and covers of books often tell if they have been cared for, if hundreds and thousands of hands have opened them or if, for some fatal reason, they have had to wait their time all alone in vast library depositories or cupboards. Sometimes, alas, their time may never come. No matter how much we admire the outer beauty of one or another book, it is its heart, its content that matters most! That is the reason why its creator gives it to us.