Syed Mujtaba Ali’s famous quote ‘One never goes bankrupt by buying a book.’ Still reading books is decreasing. Among the most successful people in the world, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Dan Gilbert, Arthur Blank, David Rubenstein, Jeff Bezos all spent a lot of time reading books, still do. Therefore, every year on April 23rd, ‘World Book and Copyright Day’ is celebrated by UNESCO to raise public awareness about book reading, book printing, book copyright protection etc. Like other countries of the world, the day was like a festival for book lovers in Bangladesh. On the occasion of the day, there were programs across the country for several days. However, this year those programs are being held in short form, very casually. The theme of the day has not been decided till yesterday.
It is known that on the occasion of the World Book and Copyright Day, where the National Book Center used to undertake a four-day program, this year’s program is one day. On the occasion of the day today (Tuesday) at 2.30 pm a discussion meeting and cultural program has been organized in the library auditorium of the National Book Centre. Culture Ministry Secretary Khalil Ahmad will be the chief guest and University Press Limited Managing Director Mahrukh Mohiuddin will be the special guest.
Dhaka University Emeritus Professor Syed Manjurul Islam will give a paper presentation on the occasion. Apart from this, the director of the book center Miner Mansoor will also be present in the event. However, since no theme has been determined by UNESCO, officials of the library have said that they are in trouble with what will be the theme this year.
Mohammad Inamul Haque, Assistant Director (Promotion, Publication and Magazines) of the National Book Centre, said that students are moving away from books. To build their book-oriented and enlightened society, like every year, the National Book Center has undertaken a program on the occasion of Book and Book Ownership Day. On the occasion of the day, the UNESCO National Commission has not kept any program. If asked, the senior program officer of the commission. Tajuddin told Kalbela, “Earlier, we used to take programs simultaneously with the World Literature Center on the occasion of the day. But this time it is not happening.
Biswa Sahitya Kendra official Tahir Mohammad Asif said, this afternoon a domestic discussion has been organized in the Biswa Sahitya Center auditorium. National library movement takes program on April 23 every year but it is not happening this time. When asked to know, the founder of the National Library Movement, Engineer Arif Chowdhury Shubo, said that the library is inaugurated on this day every year according to the list of those who are interested in building a library. Books are given as per capacity in the libraries inaugurated on this day.
