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| Book Stalls |
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| Busy with Books |
The book fair at Bajo Higher Secondary School's ground commenced on 10th April and ended on 14th April. There were about 35 bookstalls. The fair was organized by the KMT Printer and Publishing House for schools in western Bhutan, covering dzongkhags such as Thimphu, Punakha, Paro, Chukha, Samtse, Sarpang, Zhemgang, Wangdue Phodrang, and others. Hundreds of school principals, teachers, and library assistants came to purchase books for their school libraries.
There were many contemporary books that looked beautiful on the outside. The books also came in various formats, including illustrations, graphic designs, comics, and more. Almost all classic books were abridged, shortened, or summarized. I loved the variety of books available. There were books on professional development (like those by Robin Sharma), skills development, literature, sports, science and technology, sex education, and so on.
There were also books from Bhutan. Many books authored by Bhutanese sold like hotcakes, even though they were pricey. However, there was one Bhutanese author who stood advertising his thin book to customers. He looked so desperate; he begged anyone to buy his books. This highlights a problem in Bhutan: after working hard and going through the complicated publication process, an author's work is wasted—utterly wasted—leaving the author poorer, peevish, meaningless, and insignificant. Our readers must support these authors.
Our school buys books every year. This year too, the school bought books worth about two lakh and fourteen thousand rupees. Our school library was in charge, and I went to purchase the books. We bought from eight bookstalls, dividing our budget equally among them. I feel this book fair is a good opportunity for book enterprises and shops to make money.
The book fair is conducted every year. It is usually organized in Mongar for the eastern dzongkhags and in Bajo for the western dzongkhags. Many people were talking about changing the venue and the frequent need for such book fairs. It is true that to promote reading habits, to spread knowledge, and to build a knowledge-based society, there is a need to promote these fairs frequently and in different places.
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Bhutan? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Bhutan in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez