Book Fair and Halving Budget

As an all-time avid reader and bibliophile, I am very thankful for organizing the book fair in Mongar and Punakha. To promote readers, to promote reading habits, to promote knowledge, and make a knowledge-based society; there is a need for exhibitions frequently in different places in the country. I feel books should be made available everywhere; in every small town, on the highways, hotels, home, and in the classroom. It should be made easily accessible. If Bhutan is to weigh against other countries, then the books are our weapons; the main windows in the walls. We must therefore read books and value books to understand, evaluate and foster knowledge and information. Our people must read and access changing ideas and expressions.

I feel this book fair is not only a good chance to make money by book enterprises but also provides different choices of a book to our readers at a concession rate. The government of Bhutan is kind enough to give a certain budget to purchase books for school libraries to all schools in the country. The books are bought from the book fair by the respective school. But this year, the budget has been slashed more than half in the case of Chukha Dzongkhag. This slashing of the budget is not a good decision. It’s good to save for the future, which Bhutan does, but things like saving for the books is not a good idea. This year the budget to buy books has been more than halved. For example, a school previously got nu.100, 000/, now got less than nu. 40,000/ or less. The reason why the Dzongkhag has chopped the budget is not very clear. It must be tax deduction or saving for the years to come.

In addition, this year being the reading year, the deduction of budget to buy more new books and read more new books are contradictory. I would be grateful, if, schools could spend as much as money to buy books than hoarding money in the closet.

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My Small Oeuvre

I am a self-taught man of words, and therefore, self-acclaimed writer. My world is in between fantasies and the real me. I have been trying myself to write, and most probably for my own satisfaction. I kind of develop satisfaction when I have completed my little ideas in writing. I have been maintaining my creation from class VIII, and so I have so many amateur articles. I have seven or eight exercise books of them as of now, all filled with so many stories, poems, letters, songs, etc, and all of them have been my solace, a true friend. Some of them are quite shameful to read now, as they are very tender, substandard, and at times shoddy as they have faltering ideas, language, grammar, all immature ones. They are really infants. I am no better now. I have sent some of those articles to our newspapers, and they were kind enough to publish my articles. I was also awarded many times for my creations, which encouraged me further. I also wrote many anonymous articles, most of them complain letters, a few others. I have those few articles published in newspapers photographed on this blog. Many articles were misplaced. These photographs are dark as I shot in a dark room now.

One Book to Read Before You Die

Many of us must have read many books; some good and some useless. I did too. Some books have affected me so much. There are some of my favorite books that I have read it. They are; ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’ by Robin Sharma, which is a fable about fulfilling your dreams and reaching your destiny. And similarly, ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho, is an exciting novel that bursts with optimism; it is the kind of novel that tells you that everything is possible as long as you really want it to happen, just follow your dreams and heart. And other books like Gabriel’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude,’ Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre, ‘Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations,’ etc… are some of the excellent books to be read in one’s life.

Most of these books I read for one or two times, but one book that keeps me reading, again and again, is Salingar’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye.’ At first, the title didn’t fascinate me. But, when I went through some lines, it really made me laugh with goddam cynical expressions. So, when I am blue, I pick up this book and read. I forget. It gives me a company.

‘The Catcher in the Rye’ is a godamn must-read book before you die. The book uses vulgar, crude, but humorous language. The story set around the 1950s, is narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield, the main character. The story, which is supposed to be mirrored of the author J.D. Salingar’s life, creates a complex character. Holden seems useless and rejected students who suffer from alienation, desolation and directionlessness. He sometimes can be disaffected, disgruntled, and sarcastic. He lives in his ‘phony’ constructed world of imagination sometimes.

The book is loved by the former president of the USA, W. Bush, and quoted as ‘a marvelous book.’ I love the book. I love its language. The frustrated Holden shows up with so many vulgar languages like, ‘goddam,’ ‘it kills me,’ ‘how I hate this,’ ‘he is moron,’ ‘pain in the ass,’ ‘bastard,’  ‘crazy,’ and others that would keep laughing throughout the novel. It’s worth reading.