Support bookstores and libraries! Knowledge needs more space!

Reading has become a rare habit nowadays. The pandemic did contribute to the complete emptying of bookstores and libraries. Reading a book means knowing other different worlds, other cultures, other behaviors, and even yourself. Those places need to be reinvented for the sake of knowledge.

Attending a bookstore or library renews knowledge, boosts intelligence, and invigorates wisdom!

These places, where books can be clad, studied, and acquired by those who want to learn, have become fundamental in the formation of readers, whether in the intellectual, behavioral, or emotional aspect.

The crucial question is how far the digital book has impaired - or not - the pleasure of physical reading, feeling the unique mood of bookstore or library, where people are strictly equal in their eagerness to know.

An issue that has been blunt concerning the paper book is its assembly.

The process is expensive and complex because it requires the participation of many professionals, such as editors, translators, reviewers, designers, and illustrators, as well as distributors and booklets.

Another obstacle is the worrying situation of smaller producers due to the high publishing expenses and to the unfair competition with the powerful, multinational owners - often linked to large economic groups -, who practice dumping by cheapening the digital book.

What measures should be taken to save the paper book?

First of all, paper books should be distributed for free (new and old) for free to all layers of the population, mainly to the poor ones with participation of the public and private sector. T

5 measures aiming at the revitalization of bookstores and libraries:

Publishing new regulations - To support the opening, strengthening, and professionalization of small publishers, especially small bookstores.
Public libraries funds - To supply sufficient funds to maintain a public policy of purchasing, updating, and keeping old and new book collections.
A single price of the book - To provide a compatible book discount according to the local social status, as well as launching campaigns, movements for free distribution of books.
Marketing policies - To achieve private support for public libraries, by offering a discount on income tax, so that small and medium-sized bookstores can make their aggressive marketing with less money.
Special credit lines - Incentive to small and medium-sized publishers and bookstores with low-interest loans, as long as they accept the collection of books as a guarantee. Credit must be accessible for production, equipment, projects, and working capital.

The space of bookstores and libraries can be reserved for a diversified cultural agenda, such as for music, cinema, dance, art, courses, lectures, and workshops.

For a change internet access should be only on special conditions so that the user would only focus strictly on the traditional reading of the old, good and immutable paper book.

"Reading" allows you to improve "speaking"!

One of the most important benefits of reading is the possibility of enhancing your vocabulary, providing you a good speech as well as keeping the language's roots.

A person who doesn't like to read mostly uses few words to construct poor sentences and generally is not clear when explaining more complex situations, or even writing them. This kind of short-minded people sadly is spreading everywhere and the consequences shall be disastrous.

A verbal limitation creates an intellectual barrier that limits the creativity of this unfortunate speechless guy. A wave that must change ASAP!

A good reading provides clear thoughts improving the quality of ideas!

Time for a high-profile closure. A profound and meaningful statement made by a great Peruvian writer:

For Mário Vargas Llosa, "The knowledge is that scientific manuals and technical books are fundamental to us; but they do not teach us to master words or to express them with acuteness. On the contrary, they are poorly written and reveal some linguistic confusion because the authors, sometimes indisputable eminences in their profession, are uneducated and do not know how to use language to communicate the conceptual treasures of which they hold. Therefore, speaking well, having a rich and varied language, and finding the right expression for every idea or emotion that one wants to communicate, means being more prepared to think, teach, learn, dialogue, and also to fantasize, dream, feel, and thrill."

Bookstores and libraries are the most potent boost to improve education worldwide, hence making a smarter planet now and to the generations yet to come! Knowledge is power!