I guess the huge “Reading for All campaign bombarding us these day everywhere we go is one of the biggest publicity campaigns we’ve had recently.
If this proves anything at all, it’s that we’re a book-loving nation by nature and that we spend most of our time reading – a fact that completely contradicts all the false, insidious statistics that claim we’re a nation marred by high illiteracy rates.
One more thing this campaign proves is that the writing and publishing scene is flourishing more than ever before, which again contradicts other false, insidious statistics that our publishing numbers are at the lowest they’ve ever been in the past four decades.
Some might think that even if these false, insidious statistics, especially those pertaining to literacy and publishing rates were true, then this makes it all the more necessary to promote reading.
It goes without saying that a greater public interest in books will help eradicate illiteracy and, in turn, boost the writing and publishing scene, which is, without a doubt, a great endeavor.
That said, we must all remember that the aim of any advertising campaign is to promote a certain product which should clearly be “available for all in a way that matches the size of the campaign.
The question is, where are these elusive books they’ve been publicizing everywhere, the ones they’re asking us to read?
Anyone visiting Egypt today can’t miss the “Reading for all Festival ads along Airport Road, towering over bridges, on building facades, metro stations, TV, newspapers etc . And he will assume that a product so widely promoted would be just as widely available, and that he’ll be literally tripping over it everywhere he goes.
But soon enough he’ll discover that the number of bookstores selling the books being promoted is meager compared to the huge size of the ad campaign. Even worse, it’s meager relative to the population – and we refer here to the literate population, not those illiterates in the false, insidious statistics.
I would have imagined that to match this wide-ranging, unprecedented campaign, book-selling would not only be restricted to traditional venues but would be available in a special corner at all public places like sports clubs, cafeterias, beaches, shopping malls.
I would have also assumed that they would have organized public appearances for authors to talk about their books, which would be sold at special prices throughout the duration of the festival; not to mention the possibility of general knowledge competitions whose awards would be a collection of coveted canonical works.
Why not hold competitions to mine young writing talents that don’t get enough attention? Why not use the opportunity to invest in a new generation of young authors who would present their work to a panel of critics and university professors in all specializations, with a view to publishing the best of them?
A special reading festival is, indeed, a noble endeavor, but we must seize the opportunity to open the eyes of the public – especially the youth – to the importance of books, which remain the primary source of knowledge, despite the spread of the internet. A computer may be faster, but a good book will continue to be the only comprehensive source on any given subject.
If this unprecedented “Reading for all Festival campaign is not coupled with equally wide-ranging availability of books in all public places, not only in libraries as is the case the year round; and if it’s not accompanied with price promotions and competitions, and special events then it will have no real effect whatsoever.
It will, in fact, be promoting a product that doesn’t exist.
I base my argument on the assumption that this huge campaign aims to promote books – despite their meager availability – and not to publicize loyalty to reading in general, loyalty to the festival specifically or loyalty to those behind the festival, even more specifically.
Mohamed Salmawyis President of the Writer’s Union of Egypt and editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo. This article is syndicated in the Arabic press.
