Resolve to Read and Discuss a Book Today

editorial:

Today is World Book Day. In a calendar packed with Days devoted to a plethora of issues, this one, with no grand agendas or announcements to make, nor funding to sponsor rallies or workshops, expectedly drops off the priority list of days to observe. Books and reading are fighting a losing battle against the combined assault of more instant forms of entertainment and the voluminous demands of the school syllabus. However, if books worth reading are published and circulated among those interested, the book will survive.
That said, the reading habit, now battling a rearguard action, could use a leg up, something more than just a token gesture. It is unfortunate that even newspapers tend to overlook the Date [and we almost did until a colleague trawling the net passed on the info] because a larger book-reading public means a more informed newspaper-reading audience, which means more readers, more feedback which equals to a more powerful newspaper. Since no government functions or big ad-spreads announce this date, even we tend to miss it. Admitedly, newspapers should be more proactively promoting books because news is already travelling more by SMS than newsprint and public opinion made and unmade with slogans and FaceBook clicks, not debates in newspapers. Yes, unfortunate, that World Book Day goes unnoticed and unobserved in Gangtok; not a surprise though given the fact that the State capital continues to await a permanent address for its library.

To its credit though, Sikkim has recorded a surge in Sikkim-centric books over the past couple of years. In the absence of any ready data on such matters, it would be safe to vouch that more books on Sikkim have been released in the past three years [at least in English] than in the decade preceding it. And it has been a handsome mix of titles ranging from orchids to history & culture to poetry to coffee table books to politics to a well-received memoir. There have been also been books on Sikkim by scholars from outside looking in to locals looking around. The Nepali publications scene has not been as active as it was prolific till a few a years ago and there are already signs that the boom in English titles is already on the wane. But books are important, not just for the pleasure they offer or the moments they capture for posterity, but also for the debates they trigger, the insights they share. While books have been published, there has not been much discussion around books in Sikkim. There have been private discussions to rip apart efforts or celebrate publications, but books, since they are in the public domain should receive critique in public [in newspapers, not streets]. That has probably not happened because the local publishers are still far from professional in spreading works around for reviews and criticism and the global and national players find the local market too small to bother with such exercises. Of course, the media here too is yet to make book reviews a regular part of their publications. Since no one is observing World Book and Copyright Day in Sikkim, maybe the book lovers here, and there are surely many of them around, should resolve to collaborate and share more about the books that excite them.