Last night I organized my own TV night. With my remote, snuggled up among the cushions, I began looking for something interesting. I stopped to listen to an interview with a sociologist who was talking about our times.
\nBehind the handsome sociologist was a bookcase packed with books neatly lined up. So I got lost in my thoughts… I wonder if the sociologist had read all those books stacked behind him?
\nThat’s the dilemma!<\/p>\n
It’s well known that people don’t read anymore. Books, the ones we find in bookstores and libraries, have become too long and pedantic. If all goes well, a person can concentrate on reading an article on social media for a maximum of two minutes. It’s emblematic that online newspapers list the reading time next to each article. Seven minutes is the maximum time we can give ourselves to catch up on the day’s events.<\/p>\n
The question is inevitable: when do we find the time to read a book?<\/strong> If I had a little courage, I’d like to address the crowd, perhaps from Hyde Park Corner, trying to revive their passion for great stories. Those stories that only paper books with slightly yellowed pages can tell.
\nPeople have lost their love for reading, alas!
\nRaise your hand if you have a book on your bedside table or under your pillow…
\nStep forward if you’ve read at least one book in the last month!<\/p>\n
\nDramatic stories, adventures, and love stories aren’t read in seven minutes by scrolling back and forth on our phones. To enjoy a book, we need to hide our phones, forget about WhatsApp, find a comfortable armchair, and find a story that captivates us. How wonderful it would be to reread Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” with the naivet\u00e9 of a child of the 1970s. Yes, because it requires ingenuity: no Hollywood special effects, no artificial intelligence creating all sorts of scenarios, but only Verne’s profound and essential words, which transport us back to the simplicity of an enchanted world.<\/p>\n