Books

Is Anguilla a Literate Society? It is with reluctance that I enter into this topic. It touches a sore spot with me. A correspondent sent me an article from the Observer Newspaper in Antigua. The 6 October story was written by Annabel Fuller. I cannot give you the link, as the Observer can only be read by subscription. The story is about a gift of 29,000 books made by the Rotary Club of Antigua to a number of schools and libraries in that island. This worthy project was done in partnership with a Rotary Club in Annapolis in Maryland. According to the article, the gift went down very well in Antigua. Why, asked my correspondent, did the Rotary Club of Anguilla not do a similar project here?

My answer was as follows: “It does not always work out. The Anguilla Rotary Club tried a used book project two years ago. We got about 30,000 books shipped for free from a Canadian school that was closing down. They were selected, sorted, and packed by the members of a Rotary Club there. When they arrived in Anguilla, they were rejected by the librarians as unsuitable. Even the encyclopedias and classics were described as "out of date". Worse, some of them had been previously handled. That was not good enough for Anguilla. Some were given away. The Club held four or five "one book for one dollar" sales of the remainder at Mariners. Those that were left over ended up in the dump. We all swore we would never again become involved in anything like that!”

My correspondent shot back, “Don, this is very depressing. Russell wouldn't have done such a thing, would he? There are a few children here who really want to learn. Some of their families are quite poor and could never afford to have their own encyclopedia in their home, not even an old one. I come from a home that was filled with books. I did poorly in school, but educated myself about the things I wanted to know by reading books. I still do that today. I have very strong feelings about making books available to those few who want them.

There's a popular book here that's over 2000 years old and hardly anyone thinks it's out of date. This is insane. I hope you will write about it.”

Owning, reading, and handling used books are not, in my opinion, degrading or demeaning activities. I built up a collection of nearly 3,000 books on West Indian history that I later gave away. Some of the books were over 300 years old. How does anyone think you can get a “new” 300 year-old book? When I was a student, I used to haunt the second-hand book stores of Port-of-Spain. I visited the public library and bought every old book they were discarding that I wanted to read. Today, I still own thousands of books that were previously owned by someone else. I love second-hand books. I educated myself on second-hand classics.

But, the question is, does anyone in Anguilla still read today? Would second-hand books be appreciated by anyone in Anguilla? Or, would most people agree with those who rejected the books on the ground that it was demeaning for Anguillians to be invited to handle used books?