“Does anyone believe that giving a book once a year will change something?”

Each April 23 We celebrate the Book day Between roses, discounts, shop windows and fairs full of novelties. But what is the use of celebrating this day There are less and fewer readers? Especially among the youthsreading is ceasing to be a habit to become an exception.

And no, it’s not just culpa of the social or mobile networks: It is also from a education system that many times kills the pleasure of reading based on Readings imposedlittle connected to the reality of the students. I still remember when with 12 years they sent me to read ‘Don Quijote de la Mancha’.

As lectorI’m worried to see how my colleagues associate books with examsworks or boredom. There is a lot of talk about the “reading crisis”, but little is done to solve it. Does anyone really believe that giving a book once a year will change something?

Reading should not be a heroic act or a minority habit. Reading is essential to think freely, to question what surrounds us and even to imagine other ways of living. However, instead of bringing books to young people, Many times they are moved away with elitist speeches or with an outdated vision of literature.

This book day, rather than celebrating, I would invite self -criticism. What are we doing for young people to read? What spaces do we give them to discover that there are also books for them, with their languages, their themes, their voices …?

Reading is still a deeply revolutionary act, but to continue to be, we need new generations not only to see it as a obligationbut as a possibility.