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BOOK BUYING TRADITION SHOULD ADD VALUE TO GIFTING BOOKS - ARMENIA MARKS BOOK GIFTING DAY TODAY
11:28 * 19.02.15
February 19, which marks great Armenian poet Hovhannes Tumanyan's
birthday, is also traditionally celebrated as a day of book gifting
in the country.
Literary critic David Gasparyan describes the day's message as an
attempt to bring a human being closer to the book. According to him,
learning to buy books is even much more important than spreading the
culture of gifting them to people.
"We must speak about the book's value today to attract people to
gift books to one another not only on this day but also on private
occasions. There are really wonderful books. So why don't they buy
them? Because everything has its era, and books now seem to have fallen
out of fashion. Yes, not everybody reads, and books even used to be
considered part of the house furniture. But people knew the books'
value; they knew children must read," Gasparyan said.
Asked whether he agrees that people do not spend money on books because
they are considered too expensive in a socially insecure country like
Armenia, the literary critic admitted the problem to an extent. "Social
problems do certainly exist because [a book] is not a cheap pleasure,
but anyway they are possible to overcome if one is dedicated to books,"
he added.
Commenting on readers' preferences, Harutyunyan said most people now
tend to read historical-biographic literature.
"They prefer the books that contain a real history and human
biography," he said.
Literary critic Meruzhan Ter-Gulanyan said he disagrees that the
advent of advanced technologies is likely to diminish books' value.
Noting that such fears always existed after every new invention
(radio, television, computers), Ter-Gulanyan said he knows that life
has always proven the contrary.
"People reading books exist also today. It is simply important to
write well; an interesting book must be written. It is impossible
for a human being to be isolated from reading; as long as the human
being exists, book will keep living. Books are eternal. So our task
now is to revitalize the culture of reading books," he added.
Ter-Gulanyan said he really expects the book gifting culture to gain
more attraction. "People will learn it. Everything new starts from
something little, so we are required to kind of infect each other,"
he added.
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2015/02/19/girq1/1594077
From: A. Papazian
11:28 * 19.02.15
February 19, which marks great Armenian poet Hovhannes Tumanyan's
birthday, is also traditionally celebrated as a day of book gifting
in the country.
Literary critic David Gasparyan describes the day's message as an
attempt to bring a human being closer to the book. According to him,
learning to buy books is even much more important than spreading the
culture of gifting them to people.
"We must speak about the book's value today to attract people to
gift books to one another not only on this day but also on private
occasions. There are really wonderful books. So why don't they buy
them? Because everything has its era, and books now seem to have fallen
out of fashion. Yes, not everybody reads, and books even used to be
considered part of the house furniture. But people knew the books'
value; they knew children must read," Gasparyan said.
Asked whether he agrees that people do not spend money on books because
they are considered too expensive in a socially insecure country like
Armenia, the literary critic admitted the problem to an extent. "Social
problems do certainly exist because [a book] is not a cheap pleasure,
but anyway they are possible to overcome if one is dedicated to books,"
he added.
Commenting on readers' preferences, Harutyunyan said most people now
tend to read historical-biographic literature.
"They prefer the books that contain a real history and human
biography," he said.
Literary critic Meruzhan Ter-Gulanyan said he disagrees that the
advent of advanced technologies is likely to diminish books' value.
Noting that such fears always existed after every new invention
(radio, television, computers), Ter-Gulanyan said he knows that life
has always proven the contrary.
"People reading books exist also today. It is simply important to
write well; an interesting book must be written. It is impossible
for a human being to be isolated from reading; as long as the human
being exists, book will keep living. Books are eternal. So our task
now is to revitalize the culture of reading books," he added.
Ter-Gulanyan said he really expects the book gifting culture to gain
more attraction. "People will learn it. Everything new starts from
something little, so we are required to kind of infect each other,"
he added.
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2015/02/19/girq1/1594077
From: A. Papazian